Everybody's Waiting
by Lauraxo13
Summary: AU/AH. Elena Gilbert was just doing this as a favour to a friend, she didn't expect to gain so much from it- least of all, a potential romance with Damon Salvatore. Full summary inside...
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:I do not own anything related to Vampire Diaries.**

_Full Summary: Elena Gilbert has just moved toNew York City. There she has big plans to start her career and make a new life for herself- leaving all her past drama behind. While in the city, she reconnects with her old friend from university- Stefan Salvatore. Stefan, along with his brother Damon have just came into ownership of the muilti-million dollar Salvatore Empire. Stefan and trying to keep the business afloat while trying to get his stubborn brother on board._

_While no one seems on the outside seems to think that the Salvatore brothers know what their doing- they think they will send all the hard work their father put into the company down the drain the people in the company seem to offer their encouragement as much as they can. Elena, at Stefan's request joins the company as an assistant to help them get settled into their new careers. Along the way, Elena and Damon grow closer and maybe even find what they want out of life._

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Elena sighed as she let her dark suitcase fall to the ground beside her. She had just stepped into her new apartment after a long day. She smiled slightly as she took in her new surroundings- she hadn't been in the apartment beforehand, only saw pictures emailed to her by the landlord who she had done all the corresponding with over the phone.

She stepped farther into her new home and closed the door gently behind her, not wanting to make a ruckus with her new neighbours. It was nearing midnight and she was exhausted.

She had left her childhood home in Mystic Falls early this morning. After having a quick goodbye breakfast with her newly married Aunt Jenna and her husband Logan, she had stopped quickly at the apartment her brother had reluctantly given her the address to.

She only spent about five minutes there overall, giving her brother a short hug and an almost warning look as she left his place. She didn't bother stopping anywhere else, these people who she had known all her life and grown up with didn't mean as much as they once did to her.

She remembered how excited she felt the day before she left for university. It was the same feeling she was experiencing this morning, but the morning was even better seeing as she knew she wouldn't ever have to come back unless she wanted to.

So she hopped on the flight to New York, after having been delayed an hour and a half

The apartment came only half furnished which was fine with her. All she needed was a bed to sleep in, a fridge to keep food in, a radio to drown out the music made from the city streets and a desk to write on. This was her chance to start all over. Forget about the drama and stress she was leaving behind in Mystic Falls. She was eager to get out there and create a life and name for herself.

With this apartment, she was going to decorate it the way she wanted to. Fill it with memories and items she'll collect in her first few years on her own. Hang pictures on the wall of her university years, where she had first experienced freedom and happiness. Fill the bookshelves with her favorite classics and use her desk to complete her work that would lead her to a successful career.

For tonight though, she would sleep and in the morning is when she would begin her new life.

"I'm very sorry boys. We tried everything, but there was nothing we could do. His heart wasn't strong enough. Your father has passed…" The doctor looked at the two worn out boys sitting in front of him. For hours they had been waiting to hear news about their father.

They looked up at him as he told them the news with different expressions on their faces. The eldest, Damon, sat there with an almost indifferent look on his face. His lips pursed together and his eyes seem to stare right through him. The younger son, Stefan sat there, resigned, his eyes dropping towards the floor as he took in what the doctor was saying.

Just a few hours ago, they had been in different parts of the city, doing their own thing when they received a call saying that their father had had a heart attack. Being only 50 years old and usually in such a good health, the illness came as a surprise to everyone.

They had arrived at the hospital at the same time, finding their fathers doctor together and listening as he told them what had happened.

The story goes that their father was found on the floor, clutching his heart in his office. His secretary- Bonnie- found him after having heard a crash come from inside, she immediately went to check it out. Bonnie proceeded to call the ambulance and following them, her boss's two sons.

The two brothers sat in silence for about a half hour after the doctor had left them. They didn't know what to say. They didn't know how to react to such a thing. Especially not Damon, who did not have a great relationship with his father in the first place. The two had never been able to see eye to eye on things, and as a result, sadly that reflected onto his relationship with Stefan: who their father had taken on as his protégée.

Finally, Damon couldn't sit in that plastic waiting room chair anymore. "Well, no use sitting here waiting for nothing" was all he said as he waited for his brother to stand up.

In the front foyer, they found their fathers personal assistant Anna talking on the phone to someone while waiting for them. She hung up just as they reached her. "I'm so sorry about your father." She began in her gentle voice. They nodded their head in acknowledgement of her condolences.

"Well, I guess we should get to work on the funeral arrangements then. There are a lot of people to inform as well." Stefan, always the sensible one, said as they all began heading to the door.

"I think we have a slightly bigger issue to worry about beforehand boys." The younger girl said with a look of apprehension on her face. The two young men looked at her in confusion as they pushed open the hospital doors.

Suddenly, they understood what she was talking about. Outside the front doors, was a zoo. Camera flashes blinded their eyes and people were shouting at them from every angle. All with the same question,

"How does it feel to be the owner's of the complete Salvatore Empire?"

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**A/N: This is the first chapter, my first time doing an AU/AH Vampire Diaries stories for everybody's favourite couple! I realize this was a little short but I just wanted to give people a taste of the story and see if it sounded good. Let me know what you think!**

**Follow me on tumblr~ .com**

**xoxo, Laura**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I do not own Vampire Diaries**

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It was a bright beautiful morning in New York City. Light that made it past the tall skyscrapers of the city filtered through the windows of Elena's new home. The bright glare acted as her wake up call- when she checked her phone for the time she decided she really needed curtains.

It was bright and early at 6 am, but she decided against going back to sleep. She would need all the time she could get to begin to settle into her new home, the new city, and her new life.

She crawled out of bed, throwing aside the small blanket she had dug up out of her suitcase and padded across the worn out hardwood floor. In the daylight, she began to really explore her new home.

The apartment held a warm feel to it. Everything about it said it had been lived in- from the odd scuff mark here and there on the beige walls, the chips in the light oak flooring. There was a light layer of dust settled on the countertops and window sills, apparently it had been a while since the last tenant moved out so she decided she would give this place a quick clean before she began really unpacking anything.

As she stepped into her small kitchenette, she saw the boxes she had shipped over a few days ago sitting there, waiting to be unpacked. She had decided to only bring the essentials with her. Things she needed to make the apartment her home- a quilt her mother had made when she was pregnant with Elena herself, one of her favorite family photos to hang on the wall, dishes and cups she would need to use daily and other sentimental knick-knacks she found some reason to bring.

Elena stood, leaning against the counter for a moment to decide what the game plan would be. After thinking about what should and needed to be done first she decided that she would go meet with her new landlord before going out and getting some cleaning supplies. As soon as she was dressed for the day, casual in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt to match, she grabbed her bag and locked her door behind her.

She took the elevator down three floors and reached the door of Liz Forbes. She knocked lightly three times and waited.

The door opened to reveal a young, smiling blonde girl who looked to be about Elena's age. "Oh, I'm sorry I must have the wrong apartment." Though she could've sworn this was the one Liz mentioned in one of the emails. She should've double checked before coming down. "I'm looking for the landlord's apartment?" Elena said, figuring this tenant could point her in the right direction.

The bubbly blonde smiled wider and shook her head. "You found the place. My name is Caroline Forbes, my mom Liz is your landlord. Come on in, she's just in the other room." Not waiting for any response, Caroline grabbed Elena gently by the arm and dragged her into the apartment.

"Mom, the new tenant's here." She called back into what Elena assumed was the bedroom. Elena took the time to look around. The place was neatly organized, not too messy besides a few magazines lying around. The furniture wsa perfectly matched and the apartment was only a tiny bit bigger than her own.

"Would you like anything to eat or drink?" Caroline asked politely, pulling Elena from her thoughts. "I just made some toast if you're hungry." As she was asked about food, Elena realized just how hungry she was. The last time she had any decent food was at breakfast the previous morning.

"I would love some, and a glass of water, if it's not too much trouble." Elena smiled sheepishly.

Caroline only smiled in response and said "Of course not, I'll be right back."

As soon as she left, an elderly blonde walked into the room. When she saw Elena she smiled warmly and came closer extending a hand. "You must be Elena Gilbert; it's nice to finally meet you face to face." She said kindly.

"Likewise. I'm glad to finally be here." Elena said shaking the aging woman's hand.

"I see you've met my daughter Caroline. She likes to visit often, make sure I'm not losing my mind or anything." Liz laughs and Elena joins in, liking the Forbes family already. There was something about the two women she had just met that made her feel extremely welcomed.

"I have to thank you again for letting me take the apartment. You hear all the time about how hard it is to find a suitable, affordable place in the city. You're like a dream come true." Elena said, wanting to show her appreciation to her new landlady. It was true, when Elena first started looking, she couldn't afford half a months rate for hardly any of the places she found semi decent. And then, through a friend of a friend she began emailing Liz, who was offering up a small and cheap apartment.

"Well, I understand what its like nowadays. I had to lower the rent for new tenants after everyone who seemed interested rejected it after hearing the price. Good thing you found me when you did or else someone else would've snatched it up." She explained.

Caroline came back in with breakfast for the three of them. Together they sat and learned a little more about each other.

"So what are you doing for a job Miss Gilbert?" Liz asked before taking a bite of her buttered toast.

"Oh, please call me Elena." She said kindly before answering the question. "Well I got in touch with some companies offering positions before I came here. I have a few interviews set up with two of them. I was supposed to have another one, but they called and said they just found someone. Which is unfortunate because that was the one I would probably be best at seeing as it was what I went to school for. But hopefully one of the next two will work out." She explained while finishing her food.

"Good luck to you, I'm sure they will but I remember how hard it was when I first started looking. Luckily I knew some people who knew some people. Now I work as an event planner for one of the up and coming companies in the city. What did you go to school for?" Caroline inquired.

"I majored in English with a minor in communications." The Forbes women nodded along and continued to make small talk with Elena.

"Speaking of jobs, I have to work in a few hours, but Elena I'd be happy to show you around the neighborhood right now if you like." Caroline offered standing up to get her things.

"Yeah, if you have time, that'd be great." Caroline smiled in response and together, after telling Liz how nice it was to finally meet her and saying good bye they left to walk the streets of New York.

Caroline showed Elena all the need to know spots around the apartment building. Where to buy the groceries, what cafes and restaurants were good ("Alejandro's homemade crescents are too die for") and where she should never eat ("I swear they gave me food poisoning") from where the cute little boutiques were located.

Elena felt very lucky to have found the apartment. Not only had she got a kind landlady to deal with but she also feels like she is making a new friend in Caroline.

She could tell that the girl held a very optimistic outlook on life and was genuinely peppy. Although she seemed to be a little bit of a perfectionist and maybe even a tiny bit shallow, she seemed like a very sweet person and someone Elena could easily see herself spending more time with.

Before they knew it, their time was up and Caroline had to leave if she wanted to get to work on time. With a quick hug goodbye and exchange of phone numbers the two girls parted ways and Elena basked in the life of the city.

She loved walking the streets in diverse crowds and seeing all the different beauty New York had to offer. This is not something she is used to seeing. Never in Mystic Falls did she see street performers, or buildings decorated in spray paint, she's never really experienced sidewalk sales or so many people walking around her.

As she was walking past a small office, which according to the sign was home to the headquarters of a small magazaine. She opened her bag and looked for the resume she had tucked in there. She walked in with a cheery desposition and gave it to the secretary sitting at the counter. Although the secretary didn't seem as excited as she did she promised to give it to one of the bosses when they were free and she walked out of the building with a smile.

She took a look at her phone and saw that there was an email waiting to be read. As she was reading the email, her eyes widened as they moved along the words. One of her interviews had been rescheduled and double checking the clock on her phone, she was already five minutes late. Double checking the whereabouts of said interview and noticing she was, thankfully, only a block away she began to run as fast as she could in the crowded sidewalks.

She entered the doors, winded and flushed and marched straight up to the desk and told her name. There sat a young blonde woman with a permanent scowl on her face

The secretary checked her name in the computer and turned back to Elena with a look of disdain. "Your interview started fifteen minutes ago." She said shortly.

"I know, but I didn't receive the email of the time change until ten minutes ago. Please, I'm so sorry but you have to give me a chance."

"I'm sorry," she started, not sounding sorry at all. "There's nothing we can do, they already moved on to the next applicant and there are many more waiting after that. We can't simply bump them just because you don't check your email regularly. You can leave now." The bleached blonde secretary gave the fakest smile she could muster up to Elena and even gave Elena a little shooing motion with her hand.

Defeated and not wanting to make a scene, Elena walked back out of the building feeling dejected.

"_It's not the end of the world Elena."_ She thought to herself.

Not wanting to let one bad thing ruin her already good day, she placed a smile back on her face and continued to explore her new surroundings.

A few days later, Elena woke up and got dressed to impress. She had her last interview this morning and she'll be damned if she didn't give it her all.

She pulled her hair back into a high bun, put on a blazer with a matching pencil skirt and made her way further downtown to the office.

"Stupid pigs." Elena muttered out of the corner of her mouth as she stood outside the office building. Sighing, she pulled her hair out of the tie and unbuttoned her blazer. The interview did not go like she hoped it would.

Getting into the waiting room, she noticed one thing about all the other applicants sitting there. They were all tall, blonde and gorgeous, sitting there with there tops unbuttoned and their too short skirts and their faces piled in make up. She immediately felt like the odd one out as she took a seat between two of the other women.

It got worse as she walked into the interview room where three men, only a few years older than her, sat behind a large desk. Only one seemed to be asking the questions while the other two had a hard time keeping their eyes on her face. She hated the way they stared at her, not listening at all to what she was saying, judging her solely on her looks alone and not her work ethic. She walked out of the room disgusted by them.

She walked into a starbucks on the corner of the street and gasped as she walked right into someone after being too caught up in her own thoughts.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry." She said looking up and meeting a pair of familiar green eyes.

"Elena?"

"Stefan?" Elena could not believe that Stefan Salvatore was here right in front of her eyes. They had been best friends during their years at Yale University. They had met during freshman orientation and only got better acquainted through the few English classes they shared. Although they had been such good friends for years, unfortunately it wasn't as easy as they thought it would be to keep in touch once school ended.

Elena went straight back to Mystic Falls after graduation to try to help her Aunt out with Jeremy and Stefan went straight to graduate school to continue his business studies. She knew he came from the city but she figured he would still be in school. After all, it had only been about a year and a half since they graduated.

They smiled at each other in recognition and moved out of the way of the other customers.

"I'm so sorry about your drink, I was lost in my thoughts." She explained.

"That's fine, don't worry about it. God, I haven't seen you in over a year. Let me buy us some drinks and we can catch up. Unless you have somewhere to be?" He said looking at her expectantly.

She smiled at him and answered. "No I'm I think I should be the one buying the drinks as I just spilled yours."

"Nonsense," he shook his head at her, always the gentleman. "What would you like?"

"Vanilla bean frappachino please." She said as they moved their selves to a table. And just as she went to add he interrupted "with caramel. I remember. Man, you and your sweet tooth." They laughed at the memories of their university years that came to the front of their minds.

He comes back and takes a seat right across from her. "So how have you been? What are you doing in the city?"

"I've been pretty good." She said smiling. "I just moved here actually, I needed a change. Some of its been easier than I thought it would be and then there are things I underestimated. Finding a job is not easy, especially not in a big city like this." She recounted to him the experience with job interviews she had encountered over the last few days and he tried his best to hold back a laugh at her description of the other woman in the waiting room.

"Enough about me, what about you? What are you up to these days? I figured you would still be in grad school, unless you transferred to NYU?" Elena kindly questioned.

He grimaced slightly, the last few days running through his mind. "Not exactly. Things are a little tense right now. My- uh, my father passed away a few days ago." He said glancing up to gage her reaction quickly.

"Oh, Stefan I'm so sorry." She said her sympathy genuine. "I know what it's like."

And he knew she did. One night, in university, she had told him all about her parents and her life back in Mystic Falls, he wasn't as open with his family details but she understood that that's just the kind of person he was. He had supported her in anyway she needed.

"Yeah, so now my brother and I… own the company" he said simply, still not believing the words that were coming out of his mouth.

"Wow. That's huge." She said, astounded. Two young men, one barely out of university, running a multi-_billion_ dollar company.

Stefan's phone alerted him to a text and checking it quickly he sighed. "I'm sorry, duty calls. I have to be getting back to the office." Elena smiled in understanding and nodded, stating she should get home too. She still had lots of unpacking to do

"Look," Stefan said as they were walking out the door. "I was really disappointed we didn't keep in touch after school. Now that we both live here, lets hang out some more. I've missed you, Elena." He said sliding on his jacket.

"I've missed you too. I think it'd be awesome if we hung out some more. I'll give you my new number." And she took his phone and punched in her new digits.

"Text me soon." And as he smiled and turned and began to walk away she called. "And Stefan," waiting for him to face her, "don't worry. Everything will turn out okay." He smiled in thanks and continued on his way.

She smiled happyily to herself; she could not believe she had been able to reconnect with such a good friend. Seeing a good friend had really turned her day around.

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**A/N: There you have it, the second chapter and the beginning of a beautiful reunited friendship! Thank you to the people who have favourited this story or put it on story alert! I'm really excited for this story and would love to know what you guys think about it so if you have the time leave a review? Thanks again for reading:)**

**Follow me on tumblr: .com**

**xoxo, Laura**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I do not own Vampire Diaries**

Damon groaned as a knocking on his door woke him from the light sleep he fell into and got up from his comfortable spot on the black leather couch. He grabbed a hold of the handle and swung it open to reveal a tall brown haired man.

"Ric, what can I do for you my friend?" Damon asked sarcastically, leaving the door open as he walked back to the couch. He slumped down and picked up the remote, changing to the basketball game.

"Just wanted to see how you were doing. You've kind of been off the map the last few days." He said, sitting down next to his best friend.

"Well that's because the media has been camped outside my building for the last three and a half days." He said bitterly.

"Yeah, I noticed. They're starting to lighten up though. And you can't blame them: Salvatore Empire is a multi-billion dollar company and now it's left in the hands of two men under the age of thirty. One who hasn't even graduated grad school and the other who isn't even interested in it. Everybody's betting it won't last till next year." Alaric explained what exactly the media was so interested in.

"Who cares if it does or doesn't." Damon said taking a sip from the half empty beer bottle that was sitting on the coffee table. He frowned at the warmness of it and clunked it right back down.

"A lot of people Damon. If the empire goes down, investors will lose a lot of money. And in general, it business provides a lot to the economy. Magazines, furniture, studios… It wouldn't turn out well for anybody if it ends." Alaric said, taking the remote from Damon and pressing off.

This got Damon to turn to him. "So what are you saying Ric?"

"I'm saying that…" he hesitated knowing how his friend felt about the company and being told what to do. "That you shouldn't leave this all to Stefan. It's a lot of work for a kid to take on alone. And the company was left to both of you; you can't just dump it all on him."

Damon just looked at him, scrutinizing his old friend carefully. Stealing the remote back, he turned his attention back to the flat screen in front of him.

"If you don't have anything else to say, you can leave. I'm busy at the moment." Alaric got up to leave, recognizing that he has said some things his friend doesn't like and is being dismissed.

But before he shut the door behind him, he left Damon with one last thought. "I know you didn't have the best relationship with your father, but don't let that affect your relationship with your brother too." And with that, he left.

His words stuck with Damon. It was never something he pictured himself doing whenever someone asked what he wanted to do with his life. It wasn't to take over the family business like it should've been.

What Ric said about not having the greatest relationship with his father was an understatement. Damon and Giuseppe never really got along.

As a child he was much closer to his mother, and when his father started pushing her away, Damon was pushed away too. Soon after the fighting started, Maria was diagnosed with cancer. Sadly, she didn't live too long after that and things with his father worsened. At such a young age, Damon found it easy to blame his father for his mother's death. Claiming he did nothing to make it easy for her or even to help her get through it. Damon thought the fighting and arguments were what brought the illness on in the first place.

The relationship between them didn't get any better when it was time for Damon to go to school. Giuseppe had planned out his whole life for him. He had made plans to send him to the best university for a business degree to prepare him for when the time came for Damon to take over the company. Not taking what Damon wanted into consideration.

It was a tense time in the Salvatore house when Damon first announced to his father that he wanted nothing to do with the Salvatore Empire. Arguments arose, insults were thrown around, glass was shattered. Everything that they had ever disagreed on came back into light. They were using any ammunition against each other they could think of.

Damon was cut off from his father's credit account, so he had to find his own way through university, though it wasn't as hard as it could've been. He still had a fair amount of money from his mother's side left to him in her will. With that, he went to school at Duke, majoring in communications. There he met Alaric, who like himself was working his way through school. Together they found jobs as bartenders at the local pub. It was more than he could ask for. A steady income to keep on top of his finances, free alcohol and lots of pretty women to look at.

Damon stayed at Duke for the full fours years, earning his degree and providing himself with anything he needed. Once he left school, he and Alaric found a cheap apartment to rent and they continued to bartend. Damon even got promoted to the position of manager. Though eventually, they wanted something more. Alaric went on to take a job teaching at a high school in New Jersey. Damon tried many different jobs starting at different levels before finding one he found semi-decent. A few months ago he had started a job managing a little café. An elderly woman who had opened it in her twenties was now getting to old to run the place by herself.

It was quite a little success story actually and he was glad to be apart of it, he was also glad he had a chance to put his mother's teachings to good use.

No, Damon never got along with his father but that doesn't mean he was happy to see him die. As much as he hates to admit it, he respected his father's success. He worked hard to get to where he was today, running a huge successful business, what Damon couldn't respect is the people he pushed away to do so. Once the company starting going somewhere, family and friends became less important to Giuseppe, he became a different person. He lost his sense of appreciation and modesty and his respect for things he didn't understand.

As he sat there in the silence of his home, Damon couldn't stop the last conversation he had with his father from playing over and over in his mind.

_Damon had just arrived home from a hard day at work, surprised by the insistent knocking at his front door. It was pretty late into the night but he had a feeling it might be Ric coming to crash on his couch after a date gone badly._

_He opened the door with a quick wit remark on the tip of his tongue but that was lost when he saw who was standing on the other side._

"_Damon." Giuseppe said, taking Damon's silence as permission to step into the apartment. It had been about a year since Damon had last talked to his father- who had called one evening to see if he was ready to beg to get his bank account reopened. _

"_Come on in." Damon muttered under his breath as he closed the door behind his father and watched as Giuseppe surveyed his home with obvious dislike._

"_What are you doing here?" He said, getting straight to the point._

_His father turned around and gave him a long, stern look. _

"_I'm here to offer you one last chance." Giuseppe began. "It's not too late to learn the ways of the company. I know we've had our differences but you are my son and I'm willing to forgive your outbursts. You were young and stupid."_

_Damon looked at his father and disbelief. "Really? That's what you came here to say?" He took a step towards his father and stared him down. "The answers still no. I wasn't being 'young and stupid' dad; I was telling you what I want out of life. And it's nothing to do with the Salvatore Empire."_

"_Damon, grow up and act like a man for once. I am offering you a successful company and the chance to be secure for the rest of your life." He could tell his father was getting angry with his rejection._

"_No you grow up and accept that I don't want anything to do with you." Damon said giving his father a dirty look. "Why are you here? Something wrong with Stefan, he doesn't want to be your little lackey either?"_

"_Stefan is a more responsible and mature man than you will ever be. But I came here to give you one last chance. You are my eldest son and if you want to throw away your life then fine but it won't be my fault. I suggest you take this offer because it will be the last one I ever give you again. Don't be stupid, boy." His father said, stepping closer to him as his low voice rose even higher._

"_Get the hell out of my house." Damon was seething, how dare his father come in here and try acting like he was the better man. _

"_I cannot believe I raised such a disrespectful, good for nothing jerk. You mark my words, when the times comes and you realize you are going nowhere you will come crawling back on your knees begging me for help. And I promise you, I will turn you down with a smile on my face." Their faces were close now, both breathing heavily from the confrontation. "You're an idiot if you think you are getting anything from me ever again."_

"_I've never gotten anything from you in the first place." And with Damon's final words, Giuseppe stormed out of the apartment._

That was the last time Damon spoke to his father. It had only been a couple weeks before the heart attack. Obviously Giuseppe didn't have time to change the will because now Damon was stuck owning half of the Salvatore Empire.

Damon sighed and got up to get dressed. He had someone to talk to.

* * *

Stefan sighed and rubbed his eyes with his fists. All the caffeine in the world couldn't get rid of the exhaustion he was feeling. He sat behind what was once his father's desk and sighed as he looked at all the papers that lay before him.

The huge desk was filled to the edges of documents that had to be signed, proposals that needed to be finalized, and employee information to look through and most importantly at the moment, newspapers reporting about the 'startling' state that the company was going into.

It had been three days since he had officially taken over the company. Anna and Bonnie had bombarded him immediately with tasks that needed to be done. And boy there was a lot. Seeing as the company was passed down through him by he fathers wishes in the will, there were many legal documents to go over with the company lawyer, which he could only half go through because the other half was his brothers responsibility.

Damon. He has been trying to reach Damon for days but his brother was conveniently not answering his phone. He knew what his brother's stance on the Empire was and how he would probably want to give up his side of the company. Stefan grew even more stressed at the thought but pushed it away. He could do this. He had been working with his father for many years now, watching him do his job- he could run the company. Sure it would be a little difficult at first but he would adjust and he was fairly familiar with all of the heads of the company anyway, surely they would be willing to help him out.

_Yes, I can do this._ And he would have to. He had a strong feeling that his brother wouldn't want anything to do with this.

He didn't need to finish grad school. He had been watching his father run this company his whole life. He knew what it was about and the things that needed to be done. He knew how to do it. But he also knew how much work it was, especially for one person…

He needed a break. He shouldn't be taking one, with all the work that needs to be done but he desperately needed one. He needed to go get some starbucks.

And that's when he ran into Elena. Unfortunatley, the reunion was cut short when Bonnie texted him saying he missed some urgent documents that needed to be signed ASAP. On his way back to the office, he thought happily about how good it would be to have Elena back in his life.

She meant a lot to him, she was a really good friend to him during school and he was upset that they had lost touch. But that's just the way it goes in life. Things come up, they were in two different places but now they were both here and they had another opportunity to renew their friendship.

As soon as he stepped back in the main foyer of the 18th floor where his office was located, Ana was back at his side telling him all the things he needed to make sure to have done by the end of the day. He nodded his head along as she read aloud the long list and sighed once more as he sat down in the chair.

Letting his thoughts overtake him, he remembered when his father first told him he was in line to take over the company.

_It was one of the few times Giuseppe was home at a decent hour and able to have dinner with his son. It was just him and Stefan now, seeing as Maria had passed away and Damon was off god knows where. _

_Stefan was at the tender age of fifteen. It hadn't been long since Damon off. Stefan didn't know the whole story about what went down between the two but he knew that it didn't end well. Giuseppe was refusing to answer any questions regarding the elder son._

"_Stefan, son, I wanted to discuss something very important with you tonight." Giuseppe began in his low gruff voice. "I want to stress how important continuing your education is. And also get you started on interning at the company. Someday, it will be yours. And you need to be prepared for when that day comes."_

"_The company will be mine? But what about Damon?" Stefan questioned innocently and his father winced at the name._

"_Damon isn't thinking clearly right now. He doesn't want the company. And even if he did you're much better suited to take over. He's too impulsive; you actually put thought into your decisions. A long time from now, when I'm gone and you're ready, you'll keep the place going. Don't worry, I'll get you there." Giuseppe showed his son a little smile and continued eating, the end of their conversation. _

Except his father had been wrong. It was only nine years ago they had that discussion. He had not been studying under his father for many years learning everything he could about running a business. He hadn't even really worked there in over five years seeing as he has been at school trying to learn the practical knowledge about running a company. Stefan never fully believed his father was so confident in his abilities, yes they had a better relationship then he and Damon did but he could see a lot of his father's work ethic and confidence in Damon. After thinking about his fathers words- he wasn't so sure he could do this.

He lifted his head from his hands as he heard the door to his office open and in the stepped the person who he had thought fell off the face of the earth.

"Brother, nice of you to show your face." Stefan said, leaning back in the chair as Damon took a seat in the one opposite him.

"Yeah, figured I would see what exactly is going on." Damon said shuffling through a few papers sitting on the desk.

This was his chance. He knew he couldn't put the business back in its place without a little help. "Damon, I know the last thing you want is to have anything to do with this company but… but I can't do this all on my own." Seeing the look on his brother's face, he continued his proposition. "All I'm asking is for you to help me get the Empire back on its feet. Then you can sign over your half to me and you can go back to doing whatever the hell you want."

Seeing the look of desperation and hopefulness on his little brothers face gave Damon another thing to think about. Alaric was right, Stefan was too young to deal with this all on his own, and he would be an even worse brother than he already was to just leave him like this. Taking a deep breath he picked up the deed to the company that needed to be signed and looked at Stefan.

"I guess we start by signing this?" He said, holing the blue folder up beside him. And though he couldn't believe he was giving in to doing something he had been against for years, the look of relief that flashed on his little brothers face made him feel a little better about his decision.

The two brothers spent the day going through all the urgent legal things with the lawyer that needed to be looked after. Near the end of the day, they started planning out the funeral with Ana.

"You're a pretty, young thing. Let me guess it wasn't anything on your resume that got you hired." Damon said carelessly, openly looking Ana up and down. She looked shocked at the implication but held back from saying anything. He now held the power to fire her and not think twice about it.

"Damon." Stefan looked up at disbelief, chiding him for his rude remark. They did their best to look through all the necessities for the funeral while ignoring anything snide that came out of Damon's mouth. Yes, he agreed to help out, certainly doesn't mean he was going to be pleasant about it.

Stefan continued to look at Damon for opinions and suggestions but Damon could offer nothing. He didn't feel it was his place to plan the funeral bearing in mind the relationship between himself and his father. Eventually they got all the major details worked out and Ana promised she would take care of the little things and informing the people who would want to intend.

As they were leaving late at night from long ours of paperwork, Stefan stopped Damon before getting into his car. "Thank you, Damon. I really appreciate you helping out with this." All Damon could do was nodding his head and say a quick goodbye to his brother before speeding off out of the parking garage.

* * *

**A/N: So there you have it: chapter three! I usually hate when it takes Elena and Damon so long to meet in the beginning of a story but I feel like it is really necessary to build the backgrounds for these characters first so I wanted to focus on that a little bit. But don't worry, because there is interaction between the two in the next chapter! I hope you guys like where this is headed so far and please review and tell me your thoughts and feelings! I would love to hear from you guys:) Thanks again to all the wonderful people who have reviewed so far or put this on story alert!**

**Also I realize my tumblr url hasn't been showing up, I'm not sure why hopeuflly it works this time. quietlydaydreaming . tumblr . com **

**(no spaces though)**

**xoxo, Laura**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I do not own Vampire Diaries.**

Elena had now been living on her own in the big city for a full week. She had the majority of her belongings unpacked. It was pretty easy seeing as she had nothing else to do during the day.

The job search was not going the way she would like it to. She had obtained another interview but it didn't seem like it would suit her. Elena knew she couldn't afford to be picky but this job doesn't have anything to do with what she might want as a possible career and it was only part-time.

She had hung out with Caroline a few more times and they were becoming fast friends. They liked the same movies, loved the same food and held the same values. She hadn't seen Stefan since she first ran into him but he called her the night before and they had made plans to go out to lunch.

Elena had voiced her concerns about the company but he assured her he needed a break anyway, and he would love to continue catching up with her.

Elena dressed in a cute little sundress to fight against the hot May air. Stefan had given her the directions to this quaint little café just a few blocks away from her apartment and she made her way there.

She found Stefan sitting in a little two-seated booth located by the window. He was looking around just as she was entering and as he caught her eye she smiled at him in greeting.

He stood up to give her a quick hug before they both took a seat.

"Its great to see you again. Sorry I took so long to get in touch. I'm still adjusting to the new job. And my dad's funeral was the other day and everything's been a little hectic."

"Don't apologize, its totally understandable. I'm sorry about your father. " Elena showed him a small smile before turning to look at the menu. "Speaking of, how's it going? Running the company I mean."

Stefan blew out a huge breath and stared out the window. "It's still going. I don't really know: there's just so much to do right now. And the lawyer suggested going around to all the different departments to get acquainted with all the staff and see where they are at but that just adds more work." He turned to her, sipping the coffee he had ordered while waiting for. He then pulled out a little day planner that Anna wrote up to help 'keep him on track of things'. Her eyes widened as she took in just how much he had to be doing each and every day with a 'yikes' sounding from her lips.

"Good news- or at least I think its good news- is that my brother has agreed to help get everything settled before signing over his part to me."

"Right, your brother was never really interested in the company." Elena said, remembering one of the few family things Stefan had told her about while in school. "That's good of him."

Stefan laughed at this. "Not really. I think he's trying to make this as miserable as possible for everyone involved. But that doesn't really matter to me right now- just as long as he's helping out."

Elena gave her friend a sympathetic look before giving the waitress who had come over her order.

"Onto less depressing matters- how are you settling in?" Stefan said smiling after he ordered.

"Ugh, that's kind of depressing too. I mean, don't get me wrong I'm loving the city and everything but I don't know how long it's going to last unless I find a job soon." Elena explained.

"Still no luck?" Stefan asked.

"Nope. I've been applying everywhere but the places that I love always get taken and the jobs that do have openings wouldn't be the best thing for me in the long run."

Stefan sat up a little and looked at Elena. She could see the wheels turning in his head. "You know, I own my own company now…"

Elena, realizing where he was going with this, shook her head. "No Stefan, I appreciate it but I can't do that."

"Come on Elena, you need a job, I'm sure I could find something for you at the company."

"Stefan, thank you for trying but I really need to prove to myself that I can make my own way. And having my best friend from university create a job for me at his company isn't exactly the way to do that. Thank you though, I really do appreciate that you would do that." She gave him a small smile and thanked the waitress who had just set their food down.

"Okay, I guess I can accept that." He said, giving up the fight.

They continued to chat about the little things and the things they've missed in each others lives during the past year but were soon interrupted by the shrill ringing of Stefan's cell.

"I'm sorry; I should really turn this thing off. This is the second time it's interrupted us." He said, about to put his phone on silent.

"No, go ahead and take it. It could be important" Elena said, giving the go ahead. He looked at her once more for reassurance and she nodded once more.

"Hello?"

"You need to get back here now. We have a problem." Damon's voice came through the phone sounding a little pissed off. Not that he usually sounds any different while working.

"Can it wait a little bit? I'm in the middle of something."

"Doesn't matter, you don't even have to come back, I just thought you might have a problem with the P.A trying to quit." Damon's sarcastic tone explained.

"Wait, what do you mean? What happened?" He started to panic. He could not afford to lose Anna. Not right now, in the midst of everything already up in the air. She was the one keeping them on the right track. "Ugh-okay. Just keep her there, give me five minutes." Stefan said, hanging up the phone and gathering his belongings.

"I am so sorry to do this to you again but-"

"Stefan, relax its fine. Go be the boss. Don't worry I'll get the check." Elena said, shooing him along.

He hesitated for a second before checking his watch, deciding he should get back as soon as possible he started towards the door before calling out a quick "I'll pay you back" before exiting.

* * *

Stefan stepped out of the elevator to see Bonnie on the phone. She took notice of him and pointed to the office door opposite his own. After Damon agreed to help out he insisted on having his own office. So he proceeded to kick out the patron of the office across the hall (the head of international affairs who was moved to the 16th floor).

He walked into the door to find Damon, relaxing in his black leather chair with his legs propped up on the desk and Anna looking like she was ready to kill someone.

"Look, don't get your panties in a twist." Damon told her, not yet noticing Stefan. Stefan's eyes widened at his brothers words.

She looked ready to throttle him when she noticed Stefan walk through the door. "Mr. Salvatore- I'm sorry, I know you're going through a lot right now but I quit!" Anna said, turning her full attention to Stefan.

"Anna, please don't do this." He started, raising his hands as if to calm her. "I'm sure we can work out whatever the problem is…"

"The problem is that I have been working here for almost four years now and I'm nothing more than the personal assistant. Doing the grunt work all the time. And now on top of doing the usual dirty work I have to help you guys keep the company going and not to mention deal with this jackass" She replied, with a finger point in the dark haired mans direction.

"I know there's a lot going on right now but it will settle down soon. And then we can look into other possible placements for you but right now we need you here with us. And as for whatever he said, on behalf of _both_ of us," he stressed, with a pointed look towards Damon, "we are very sorry. Please, you can't leave now, we need you." He begged.

"I know you're in a tough spot right now and I'm sorry but I can't do this anymore." Anna fumed as she grabbed her bag. Apparently in the time it took Stefan to get here, she had grabbed her belongings. Stefan couldn't think of what more to say as he watched her storm out of the room to into the elevator.

He turned around to see Damon sitting there acting like nothing happened, throwing a hackie sack between his hands.

"Were you just paying attention to the last five minutes?" Stefan looked at his brother in disbelief. "Our personal assistant just quit. The one person who worked with Dad day in and day out and knew everything we had to do over the next few weeks for quit and all because you couldn't keep your damn comments to yourself!" Stefan held a mixture of emotions, but the largest was desperation.

He didn't know how they would handle everything now. They were barely handling it all before. And Damon just sat there looking nonchalant about it all. He needed to get away and cool down for a few minutes before he exploded.

* * *

Elena couldn't be disappointed that her lunch with Stefan was cut short. She could only imagine how big of a responsibility it is to run the Salvatore Empire and she wouldn't put more stress on Stefan by making him feel bad about ditching her again. Besides, there would be plenty of time to hang out again, especially when things settle down for him at work.

She signaled the waitress for the check and got her wallet out for money. As she was finishing off the last of her coffee a little brown book caught her eye from behind a drink menu. She pulled it around to her and she saw it was Stefan's day planner. The one that had everything he needed to be doing for the next couple of days.

"_Uh oh, he's going to need this"_

Elena decided that after she paid, she would quickly run down to drop off the book for Stefan. She could picture how stressed he would be if he thought he lost it.

After seeing Stefan storm out, Damon had the decency to feel a little bad about his actions. His coming to work was supposed to make things easier his little brother, not worse.

He went into the foyer and went to lean against the secretary's dark. He and the dark-skinned girl didn't get off the on right foot either but she was willing to put up with him. She couldn't afford to lose this job as she had a sick grandmother to care for at home.

"Mr. Salvatore." She greeted him quietly while continuing to type things on her desktop.

"Judgey." He didn't know her name and he didn't plan on learning it. He wasn't planning to be here that long anyway. But he had seen all the dirty glares she had given him during the times they were in the offices together. In fact, at his greeting she was giving him one right now.

"Where'd my brother go?" He said picking up a pencil off her desk and twirling it through his fingers.

She could've easily said a witty remark but she didn't want to risk his anger. She had already seen him fire somebody without batting an eyelid first-hand and did not want to get added to the list.

"I believe the other Mr. Salvatore went for a walk to calm down."

"Hmm." He sat quietly for a few minutes before he felt the rumbling of his stomach. "I'm kinda hungry. How about going and getting me a burger?" He said giving her a smirk as she just stared at him in disbelief.

"You just fired your personal assistant. You'll have to get that yourself."

"No, the P.A just quit and now you get the fabulous task of taking over her duties." He said, trying to put her in her place.

"You can't expect me to be able to get through all my work and do someone else's job too?" She had stopped typing and was staring at him like he was an idiot.

He heard the little ding of the elevator but continued to look at her. These people at the Empire were really starting to piss him off. Haven't they ever heard of multi-tasking or initiative?

Bonnie ignored him as the person who had stepped off the elevator came up to the desk. "Can I help you with something miss?" She asked politely.

"I'm looking for Stefan Salvatore?" Damon heard a soft, sweet sounding voice asked from behind him and turned around to look at the woman who had spoken.

"He's busy, what do you want?" The words fell out of his mouth just as he surveyed the young woman in front of him. She was beautiful by all means. With long brown hair, big brown eyes and olive colored skin. But Damon wasn't focusing on that at the moment. He was focusing on the fact that everybody around him was annoying and didn't deserve his time.

She looked a little shocked the tone of his voice but stood her ground turning her attention towards him. "I just need to return something to him."

He shrugged at her. "Well give it here; I'll get it to him later." Holding out his hand for the item in question.

"I'd rather just give it to him in person." She said, not liking nor trusting the person before her.

Damon rolled his eyes at the stranger, getting even more irritated than he was already. "Look, whoever you are. We're all a little busy here at the moment and as important as you might think whatever it is that you have to give him, its not. So either give it to me now or you can leave and Stefan can find time for you whenever." He said throwing the pencil that had been in his hands back on the secretary's desk and turning around to leave.

"And I want some fries with that burger." He threw a little glare towards the secretary preparing to go back into his office.

"Excuse me but who do you think who are? Where do you get off talking to people like that?" Apparently the girl didn't take her clue to leave and he scoffed a little before turning to face her with a smirk on his face.

"I think…" Drawling the word out, "I'm the owner of the Salvatore Empire." He said slowly as if he was talking to a dimwit.

Elena's eyes widened as the realization set in.

"You're Stefan's brother." She said softly. Elena felt stupid for not realizing this sooner. After all Stefan had told her about his brother and his attitude, she couldn't put two and two together.

"Bingo. You can go now." He remarked.

Once again, the elevator dinged and Elena heard her name called from behind her. She turned around and saw Stefan looking at her confused. "What are you doing here? Is everything okay?" He said stepping towards her.

"Yes, everything's fine, you just forgot this at lunch." She explained, pulling the small book out of her bag.

His eyes took in the object in her hands snapped back up towards hers. "Oh my god, I can't believe I forgot that. Thank you so much for bringing it back. We'd be screwed without it." Stefan couldn't believe he had forgotten such an important thing. Now with Anna gone, this was the only thing to keep them on track: at least for the next few days.

"No problem." She smiled. Stefan looked over her shoulder and saw Damon there giving them a curious look.

"I see you've met my brother, Damon." He said, walking in between the two.

"Kind of." She said as she looked at Damon once more with dislike as he looked at her with equal disdain.

"Well not formally. Your name is?" Damon said, giving this girl more attention now that he knew she was a legitimate friend of his brothers and oddly curious to find out how they know each other.

"Elena Gilbert." She answered after a moment's hesitation. "Well, I should be going now; I'm supposed to meet Caroline in a little bit. I'll talk to you later Stefan." The brunette said.

"Yeah, I'll call you. Thanks so much again for this Elena." Stefan said holding up the book.

"I'll see you later Stefan." She smiled, beginning to head back to the elevator. "Goodbye Damon." She said, throwing a glance his way.

"So lovely to meet you, Elena." His sarcastic remark followed her through to the elevator and she sighed as the door shut. She didn't know how Stefan could stand him for more than five minutes.

Damon followed Stefan back into his office and watched as Stefan sat down behind the desk and put his head in his hands.

"Calm down, it will be fine. We'll go through the little notebook she wrote and do everything according to plan. Then you'll have the company and I'll be out of here." Damon said, doing a little to try to calm his brother.

"Yeah, sure we can follow the book. The problem, Damon, is that the book is only what we should be doing for the next three days; Anna didn't do anything past that. So now we have to figure out what to do past that and make sure we keep ourselves on schedule."

"Well here's an easy solution- we hire another personal assistant to keep us on track and help us out a little. There problem solved." Damon argued.

"How are we supposed to find someone who can get over your stupid remarks and that is competent enough to-"Stefan broke off as an idea came to him. This was perfect. He knew the best person for the job.

"What? What's that look on your face?" Damon asked, referring to the small excited smile that had appeared. "You look like a two year old who just discovered chocolate."

"Elena."

"That feisty chick that just left?" Damon looked at his brother in disbelief.

"Its' perfect. She'll be able to put up with your crap. She's responsible, she's a friend and she's looking for a job." Although when he offered before she had declined, he wasn't doing this for her now. Maybe a little, but mostly he was doing it for himself because he needed someone they could count on to help.

Damon thought about it for a minute. Although he didn't think he would get along with her too well, it was a quick fix to a big problem. Plus, he could already tell that his brother was beginning to calm down so he thought it would be better to agree with him.

"Fine. Call her up, give her the job." Damon said.

"No no no, I can't call her she'll think I'm just doing this as a favor to her. You need to call her- first to show her you actually can be a decent guy and second to show her that it's a serious offer. Please Damon, be nice and get her on board." Stefan said, knowing Elena wouldn't turn him down if he begged but wanting his brother to put a little effort into it.

Damon groaned dramatically and exhaled deeply. "Fine, what's the number?"

* * *

**A/N: Yay! They finally meet. Sorry for the long wait for them to finally interact but like i said before i feel it was necessary for the story. Don't worry, there's many more moments to come between them! Just to let you guys knowwhere I'm at with this story- I have pretty pretty much all of it written so expect reasonably fast updates. At the moment it looks like its going to be about 18 chapters so hopefully you'll all stick with me for the rest. Once again, thanks to everybody who had followed this story so far! and please let me know what you think with a review. Especially about Elena and Damon first meeting?**

**xoxo, Laura**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I do not own Vampire Diaries.**

* * *

Elena walked through the door to her apartment after leaving Caroline at her mothers. The girls had just spent the last few hours' grocery shopping and chatting. Already, it seemed as if they had been best friends all there lives.

She had just closed the door when she heard to ringing of her phone. She quickly rushed towards it, hoping it was another company with an interview offer. A little out of breath, she gave a short "hello" to the person on the phone.

"So nice to speak to you again Ms Gilbert." Surprisingly it only took her a short second to recognize the sarcastic voice on the other end. She adopted a curious look on her face as she wondered why on earth he would be calling her.

"How did you get this number?"

"My brother, of course." Damon responded. "Look, I have a proposition for you."

Elena face grew even more confused as she continued talking to him.

"What kind of proposition?"

"You need a job. We just happened to have had our P.A quit on us and now we need somebody to help keep us on track more or less. So be here first thing tomorrow, got it?" The deep voice responded.

"I told Stefan I didn't want him to do me any favors." He was really sweet for trying but she really wanted to make her own way right now.

"This isn't Stefan doing you a favor; this is you doing him a favor." Damon said. "Look, he was really freaked out before but then he came up with this idea for you to take the job and it's the best solution for everybody right now, so stop trying to be an independent woman and just take the job."

"God, is this how you treat everyone or am I just special?" Elena said, taking a queue from his frequent sarcasm.

"You wish you were that lucky. So you've accepted? Be here first thing in the morning." And with that he hung up.

So that's how Elena got to where she was. Standing outside the Salvatore Empire head office building. There was no way she could turn down helping Stefan. He has been really obviously stressed lately and she was in need of a job. So if they both got something out of it, what was the harm? Besides, what's the worst that could happen?

Elena stepped into the elevator she had been in the previous day and pressed the button to the eighteenth floor. The doors opened and the secretary immediately took notice of her. She smiled at the girl and introduced herself.

"Hi, we kind of met yesterday" Elena laughed a little. "I'm Elena Gilbert." Holding out her hand and watching as the other young woman grasped it.

"I know, Stefan told me to expect you soon. I'm Bonnie Bennett, Stefan- and _Damon's _"Bonnie said his name roughly "secretary"

"It's nice to officially meet you."

"Like wise. I would just like to say thank you very much for accepting the job: I was worried for a while that I might have to take over that as well."

"Well, anything I can do to help."

Bonnie smiled in return. "They're both in Stefan's office if you want to head on in." Bonnie informed Elena before taking a seat.

Elena nodded and thanked her before heading to Stefan's door. She knocked lightly a few times before poking her head in. She saw both Stefan's and Damon's heads turn towards her and Stefan smiled gesturing her in.

"Elena. I'm happy you agreed to this. I know how stubborn you can be, but I- we- really need all the help we can get."

"Well I'm happy to help. Where do we start?" She asked taking a seat next to Damon. Stefan held up the little brown book she had given back to him yesterday and explained. "Well, we have most of the legal documents that needed to be done. But we still have all these proposals to read up and decide if we should sign or not." He said gesturing to the large pile sitting on the corner of the desk. "Then after we finish that, we still need to go around and meet with all the department heads to reintroduce ourselves and assure the staff that everything's going well so far."

"So while we begin to sign these things why don't you be a dear and go get some coffees?" Damon suggested throwing his two cents in and giving her a commanding smirk. Stefan gave his brother a pointed look while Elena smiled fakely back at him before grabbing a handful of the proposals Stefan had gestured to.

"Are these just proposals from inside the company? Like from different departments and such?" She asked, flipping through the first few pages of one.

"Yeah. For things like new products or new staff systems… etc." Elena nodded along to show her understanding and put the papers back on the desk.

"Well why don't you two just go and meet with all the different departments today and while you're there find out exactly what's in the proposals from them personally so you don't have to go through all paperwork." Elena suggested looking at the brothers for their thoughts.

"Killing two birds with one stone." Stefan said summarizing the idea and smiled. I'm so happy you're here." She laughed a little back and grew a little smug as she saw that Damon even seemed to be a little impressed with the idea she threw out.

"I guess we could do that. I'll go around to the product departments and you do the business ones." Damon said, not bothering to show that he had underestimated her.

Stefan nodded, agreeing that would probably be best and looked at Elena.

"I'll stay here and begin to sort out what to do next." She gave an affirmative nod and watched as the brothers left.

While at first Damon thought his brother had hired her as a way to try to earn brownie points with her- he still didn't know exactly what kind of relationship they have-, maybe it was just because he trusted her with the job.

So maybe Stefan was right. In that short time, Elena managed to prove that she was competent enough to know what needed to be done and how to do it. But one lucky idea doesn't mean that she doesn't have anything left to prove to Damon.

Damon started on the second floor of the building in the product prototype department. There he met the head and some of the people on the job. They had thrown in a proposal for new equipment which had a valid argument to it and putting on his best business face- Damon agreed that it seemed like a reasonable request that would only be beneficial to the company.

It went like this in most of the departments he visited. Everyone seemed nice enough and while Damon did his best to reassure everyone that the company is in good hands- he still saw the looks being thrown around. In the test marketing department, one fool –_Luca something_ even had the audacity to question Damon out loud. Damon had to literally bite his tongue to keep from throwing out a usual snide remark, knowing enough that going off on an employee who was having reasonable doubt would not help him and his brother get anywhere.

Seeing the relief on some people's faces that someone had enough nerve to speak out showed Damon he and his brother had a lot of work to do if they wanted their employees to feel secure.

All in all both Damon and Stefan had to go through about 15 departments each. Like agreed upon before Damon had visited the more hands-on departments and Stefan had seen to the business side of things- the different marketing departments and developments and international affairs and the like.

It was nearing six thirty when Damon walked out of the last department. He met Stefan on the fifteenth floor, figuring it might help a little more if both the brothers were in the same place.

Joining Stefan for his last department visit definitely seemed better than the ones he had gone to alone. Maybe it was the fact that both of them were there or it could just be the people in the branch had more belief in the two. Who knows?

The two brothers walked to the elevator discussing how they're meetings went. Apparently Stefan got the same impression as Damon did in that they really needed to show the employees that they were serious about their positions.

"I wonder how Elena's doing."

Damon scoffed at this and immediately assumed the worst. "Probably just sitting around, doing something of absolutely no use to us."

Stefan sighed and put his hand in front of his brother to stop him before they left the elevator. "Look, she's not like that okay. You were there this morning she's the one who came up with this idea. Just give her a chance okay."

Bonnie was closing his office door just as they walked into the foyer. "Oh, you're back. How was it?"

"Long and tedious." Stefan smile lightly.

"Well I just got back, dinners waiting for you in the office." She smiled, her attention mostly towards Stefan, like usual.

Damon looked at her in disbelief. "Dinner? You got so offended when I told you to go get me some lunch yesterday and now you're willing to do whatever _she _wants."

"The key word being 'told', Mr. Salvatore. Elena didn't even ask me to, and besides she's been lovely to me all day, so when she said she was going to grab you guys dinner- I offered. She looked pretty engrossed in what she was doing and I didn't want her to lose her place." She explained before taking a seat at her desk and picking up where she left off.

Damon grunted and followed Stefan into the office. Inside they saw their dinner sitting of the table near the door while Elena was standing in front of two giant white boards she had pulled from somewhere.

Stefan and Damon stopped where they were standing when they saw what she had been doing all day. The two boards were divided into 7 sections. Starting for the next day and following through the whole week. In each section, dates were listed and events were written down. Also other information that they didn't know what it was yet. It looked to even be color coordinated.

Having heard the door open, Elena turned around and smiled slightly at them. "Hey, great you're back, how did it go?"

"Could've been better. We definitely have a lot to prove to all the employees." Stefan answered while moving over to his desk.

"What's all this?" Damon said waving a hand to the boards.

"I asked Bonnie for your dad's calendar for the month: the things in green on here are events he had RSVP'd to and had scheduled. I also took the liberty of going through the CEO's email address to see all the meetings that have been scheduled for the next few days. Those are the ones in red. The ones in blue are people who have been calling over the last few days. There are quite a few so I divided them up over a number of days. I put the ones who have called more near the beginning." She said, looking a little sheepish at having gone through the email. She didn't know exactly what she was allowed to do, but she needed the information. "Also, I divided up the proposal piles on the desks, to the departments you went to today. Stefan your pile is on the right, Damon's yours is the left."

Okay. So maybe she was a little more than competent. Looking at all her hard work throughout the office made Damon feel as if he didn't do much today. He didn't like it and he was hardly about to admit that he was impressed with all she had done.

Damon grabbed his share food the secretary had got them and took a seat in one of the chairs. "So what's on tap for tomorrow?"

Elena and Stefan followed suit and Elena took a bite before responding. "Well, provided we have all the paperwork done, we can start responding to the emails and calls. And then we can start prepping for the meetings for the rest of the week."

They spent the next little while talking eating and telling each other about the proposals they were unsure about. The biggest worry was money, as all the proposals were fair enough; the money needed to put them into place was the worry. In the end, they agreed that with the empire where it is, it would work out fine. They had more than enough money to spare.

After they finished eating, Damon and Stefan spent an hour signing the proposals while Elena continued going through any leftover calendars and emails, making sure she had accounted all the proper times and events scheduled.

By eight o'clock, they had done what they had planned to that day. It was the first day since they started just Damon and Stefan were leaving the office at a decent hour.

They walked out of the building together, and said their goodbyes. Elena gave Stefan a quick hug while opting for a hand wave towards Damon. He gave her a smirk in return and turned towards his car.

As Elena was walking home, she reflected on her new job. It was nice spending time with Stefan again; she hadn't realized how much she missed his company. Damon, on the other hand, would definitely take some getting used to.

Although it was incredibly annoying: Elena could deal with all the snide remarks, sarcasm and insults. It would be nice if he had tried to make her feel welcome but he was so hostile. She didn't feel too bad because it was obvious he was like this towards everyone. She just wondered why. She knew he never really wanted anything to do with the company but it's not like he was doing this for the long haul. But was it just working in the company he resented that made him like this or was there more to it than that?

_Why am I thinking about this so much?_

Elena shook her head as if to shake the thoughts from her mind. She was exhausted as she arrived home and sank down into her bed.

Although she felt like a little bit of a cheater for getting hired by a friend she couldn't deny that it felt good to be working. And especially seeing how more relaxed Stefan was than he had been before. She felt happy knowing she was helping her good friend.

* * *

As soon as Elena woke up, she went straight to the kitchen to make a small breakfast before getting ready for her second day of work. Turning on the radio to break the silence she paused as she heard the Salvatore Empire mentioned in the conversation. She popped her bread in the toaster and turned the volume up.

"_We are back live with Richard Lockwood- head of Lockwood Inc., Richard overnight you and your company released a press statement essentially bashing not only the Salvatore Empire but the ownership as well. And as most of our listeners should know the former head of the multimillion dollar corporation- Giuseppe Salvatore recently died of a heart attack. He was laid to rest just a few days ago and now his two sons, Damon and Stefan- ages 27 and 24 respectively have gained responsibility of the company." The enthusiastic DJ informed._

"_Well you just said the problem right there. Two _boys_ had been handed this huge responsibility and consumers would be silly to put their money in their hands. There is no way these two guys have any clue what they're doing."_

"_So, you're not hiding the fact that as a corporation who had been in competition with them since you began, you're trying to bring them down."_

"_That's putting an ugly name on it. What we're trying to do, is help them while they're still on top. Lockwood Inc. would be happy to buy the company from them. This really would be a good business decision for them. You know they saying, better to go out on top. This would benefit everyone. Lockwood Inc. already has the better product and company in general and we would be doing them a favor."_

"_So what you're saying is you're going to buy them out pretty soon."_

"_Yes, Plain and simple."_

"_That's all the time we have for today folks. This has been DJ Ricky Ray on NYRS 101.2. Richard Lockwood, thank you for joining us."_

"_Thank you for having me."_

"_Stay tuned for more with DJ-"Elena_ turned off the radio with an anxious look on her face. Have Stefan and Damon heard of this already? Were they now planning to sell the company? All she knew for sure was she had to get to work as soon as possible to help them figure out.

She hurriedly got dressed and stuffed the now burnt toast in her mouth before rushing out the door.

The elevator dinged as she reached the eighteenth floor and Bonnie immediately caught her eye. She looked a little worried and pointed to Stefans Office. "They're in there. Tread carefully, Damon's livid."

"Thanks for the heads up." Elena said before walking straight into the office. "Hey, I heard the news on the radio this morning. Is Lockwood Inc. really buying you guys out?"

"No." Damon said, who stopped pacing to turn and look at her like she was insane.

"They can't." Stefan explained, softer than Damon had.

"But he made it sound like it was only hours away from happening."

"He was just playing it up. Making it seem like Lockwood Inc. was on top." Damon said, finally sitting down in a chair. "Salvatore Empire has a big lead on that wannabe corporation."

"So that's means they can't buy us out." Stefan said, finishing his brothers thoughts. "At least- not yet. But if things do play out like everybody seems to think they will then it's only a matter of time before they can."

"But that's not going to happen. We're not going to let this company go down."

Both Elena and Stefan's heads turned sharply to Damon in surprise. They couldn't believe the determination and anger that was coming through in his voice. After all, he wanted nothing to do with it before and now the idea of someone else having it caused him to act like this.

After a few more seconds of disbelief Elena agreed with him. "No, we won't. We will show everybody that you two are more than capable to run this company and run it well."

Stefan looked at his brother quietly for a moment. "We can do this."

The three were in the office all day; Elena's schedule was pushed back a little while they figured out a game plan for how to handle the Lockwood situation. They decided on their own press release. They spent the day coming up with the right words and phrases to prove that they are mature and serious.

They sent it to the PR department to do their thing with it and went on to doing what needed to be done for the day. After a long 12 hours, Elena was on her way home. She decided to take a small detour to explore the city at night a little more.

She spotted a small little dessert café across the street and walked towards it. Deciding she deserved to give herself a little treat. She had been working more in the last two days than she has during the past two weeks.

She stepped into the small dimly lit shop and looked at all the mouthwatering treats they had to offer. In the end, she decided on a chocolate covered strawberry. Like Stefan had said- she was a sucker for sweets.

She ate it up quickly and headed towards the door. As she once again stepped out into the cool night air she was caught up in the aura of the city. She was so distracted that she wasn't paying attention as she turned the corner and crashed right into someone.

The stranger grabbed her by the shoulder to help steady her. She looked up to about to apologize and thank the stranger and saw he was just staring at her.

"I'm so sorry." He said quickly, snapping out of her gaze and bringing his hands back to his side.

"No it was completely my fault. I should've been looking at where I was going. I actually have a bad habit of running into people." She said as he laughed.

"Well, if anybody has to bump into me, I'm glad it was you." He smiled at her, and she blushed lightly at his open flirtation.

The two stood in the middle of the sidewalk just smiling at each other for a few seconds before Elena decided to make a move. "I'm Elena." She announced, holding out her hand.

His smile widened as he grasped her small hand.

"Mason."

* * *

**A/N: I would just like to point out to you wonderful readers that a lot of the business stuff- I'm making up. I have no clue what needs to be done to run a huge company so please if it sounds ridiculous or way out-there, just go with it? Haha, what do you guys think about the introduction of Mason?**

**I have to say, the next chapter is probably one of my favorites! We learn a little more about Elena and Stefan's past and a little more about Damon. I hope to have it up soon.**

**Just have to say, I am really excited about the amount of people who have subscribed to this story- thank you so much! and thank you to all those who review as well, I love hearing your opinions/suggestions/thoughts on the story:)**

**xoxo, Laura**

**ps follow me on tumblr quietlydaydreaming . tumblr. com**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: I do not own Vampire Diaries**

* * *

Elena has been officially working with the Empire for a week and a half now. She seemed to be doing very well in her position though she was still butting heads with Damon over the tiniest things, and Lockwood Inc. was doing everything they could to bring the Empire down.

It was now a Friday night; Elena had worked a long 13 hour day and was all ready for her girl's night out with Caroline.

_Speak of the devil_ Elena thought to herself as she heard a knock on her apartment door.

"Come on in." She called, putting on one last swipe of her lip gloss before going to grab her purse.

"Elena, Elena, Elena. This is New York City: its one thing to have your door unlocked but it's a whole other thing to just call someone into your apartment- you didn't know for certain I was on the other side." Caroline playfully scolded as she took Elena's spot in the mirror.

"You're right; I guess it's harder than I thought to kick the small town mannerisms out of me." Elena joked, laughing along with the peppy blonde.

"Come on get your cute butt out the door. We're going to hit the town tonight!" Caroline exclaimed, throwing Elena a pair of heels and turning towards the door. Elena smiled and slipped the heels on quickly before following Caroline's lead.

The girls ended up at a little sushi bar on the other side of the city. Apparently Caroline comes here a lot when she needs to schmooze the clients. "Good food, good service, good drinks." She told Elena.

After ordering too many plates of California rolls the girls got to talking about Elena's new job.

"You seem to be working a lot lately." Caroline started, taking a sip of her martini.

"Yeah, there's been a lot to do, but Stefan's been a lot more relaxed since he got the extra help so that makes it worth it."

"Oh Stefan huh?" Caroline said, giving Elena another wink. "I'm sure you're doing all you can to make him feel relaxed." She chuckled a little once she saw Elena's expression and Elena started shaking her head vehemently.

"No. It is so _not _like that between us. We are just friends; we're more like brother and sister than anything else." Elena said, thinking of the friendship between them.

"Are you sure that's what it is?" Caroline said wanting to hear more about them.

"Positive." Elena nodded. "That's never even been an issue between us. We met in school and just… bonded. We helped each other get through all the classes and had some really fun times. I could never be interested in him like that and he would never be interested in me like that." Elena said, absolutely certain of where they stood.

It was actually something they got questioned about a lot when they were in school: whether they were together or not. It was just because they spent so much time together. Being questioned so many times eventually led to them actually discussing it themselves- both left feeling relieved that they could continue to be such close friend knowing that the other didn't feel a certain way about them.

"Okay, I get it." Caroline laughed, throwing up her hands in a 'I give up" gesture. "So _are_ there any special guys in your life?"

Elena didn't even really have to think about it. "Not really. the last serious relationship I had was with a guy named Matt, he lives in my hometown. We got together at the end of high school and made it through the first few years of university in a long distance relationship but eventually we couldn't deal with being so far away from each other. So we broke up."

Caroline nodded; she's been in that situation before too. "Well, what about when you went back home after school? Did you guys consider getting back together?"

"No. First because he has another girlfriend. But also because I never really pictured myself with him for the long run. Don't get me wrong, he's sweet, he's attractive- he's the all-American guy. But I don't know… I wanted something more than that. I always felt like something was missing between us."

"I can understand that. I'm very picky about my men." Caroline confirmed, raising her head to glance around the bar as if to show her point.

"So with all the time spent working, have you met many new people?" Caroline wondered kindly. She knew how hard it could be to adapt to a new environment and Elena was too nice to not have many people to share that with.

Elena smiled lightly thinking back to her encounter with a dark haired man from a week ago.

"Well actually… I did meet this one guy. I was walking home from work the other night and I kind of ran into him."

"Ohh I want details! Good looking? What's his name? What does he do? Did you give him your number?"

"Okay, okay!" Elena laughed, "His name is Mason, yes he's good-looking. He's a personal trainer and yes. We've been texting all throughout the last couple of days" Elena said, smiling as she thought of their first encounter.

"Sexy name and he must have the body to match if he's personal trainer. "Caroline nodded showing her approval. "Go for it."

Elena laughed at her friend. "I don't know. I'm not exactly the kind of person who's willing to make the first move.

"Old-fashioned?"

"Maybe a little, if anything: it's more about lacking the confidence to make a move on a guy I just met."

"We can fix that." Caroline grinned, her face saying she had ideas.

* * *

"I guess great minds think alike." Damon said, sliding up next to Stefan, who was patiently waiting in line to get coffee.

Stefan looked to him in surprise, "I guess so. Good morning."

Together, waiting in line to get coffee, they talked about what they had on schedule for today while waiting for their turn at the counter.

"Are we getting Elena anything?" Damon said, as they were up next. Stefan turned to him in surprise.

"See, if only you could show your consideration for people like that while you're with them. Then maybe you two could actually become something along the lines of friends rather than people who just argue about everything."

"Oh, stuff it, its not like I volunteered to take a bullet for her. Coffee doesn't make a difference. And besides, our disagreements make things a little less boring around the office." Damon smirked.

Their latest spat had been about Damon always telling Elena to go get coffee.

"Well anyway, no. I told her to take the morning off, she's been working really hard, and the last thing she should have to do was come in early on a Monday morning."

"You're really trying to get on her good side aren't you?" Damon said causing Stefan to look confused.

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean. Just man up and ask her out already." Damon said, finally sharing his opinion on the relationship between them. It was obvious Stefan and Elena were close and Damon may not have been to involved in Stefan's life the last couple of years but he would bet that his brother is a little bit of a coward when it comes to being forward with a girl.

Stefan looked at him, dumbfounded that his brother came to that conclusion. "It's not like that between us. My being nice to Elena has nothing to do with me wanting to ask her out. She's a good friend of mine from university but it's never been like that between us. No way."

"Huh." Damon said, absorbing the information. For some reason, the idea of Stefan and Elena being together had been going through his mind a lot during the times they worked together. He couldn't see it in his head- to him, they wouldn't work together. Elena was naturally a sweetheart sure but she had a feisty side to her that needed to find its counterpart and that's something Stefan couldn't do for her.

"Everybody always thinks we're together or something just because we're so close. But all we've ever been was friends, nothing more. ."

"Everybody?"

"All the other students, even some of the professors." Stefan said, his brother looking on curiously. As he remembered Damon didn't know too much about the last couple years of his life he went on to explain more about it.

"We met in university and became fast friends. We had quite a few classes together so naturally we ended up spending a lot of time together. We got to know each other really well. But once we graduated we were both in different places and lost touch. I ran into her a couple days after she moved to the city and now here we are."

Damon listened along to his brother's history and took the opportunity to ask questions. He admitted to himself there that he felt bad about leaving Stefan behind just because he had a falling out with his father.

"So, if not Elena, are there any special ladies in your life right now?"

Stefan laughed a little and shook his head. "Nah broke up with my last girlfriend a couple months ago. Girl named Lexi, started off good but eventually we realized we just didn't want the same things out of life."

The cashier called them to the register and took their orders. "What about you, what's your love life like?" Stefan asked once they had both received their coffees.

"No love life. Before this whole ordeal," Referring to gaining ownership of the company. "I went on dates but nothing serious."

"Ever?" Stefan asked curiously. Damon had actually seemed interested in what he had to say but he wasn't sure how much he would be willing to share about himself.

Damon looked at his younger brother for a minute, hesitating. Here was someone he had once been so close to. They had done everything together when they were little and as Damon grew up, he began to leave Stefan behind. Then after everything with his father, he became so mad at the idea of 'family' he took off not bothering to check up on his little brother who had once meant so much to him.

He had missed many important years in Stefan's life and now here was his chance to make up for lost time. No, he wasn't normally the type to let people in but if he wanted to be his brother's friend again, he would have to give a little to get a little.

"There was one girl." He said, becoming somber as he thought back to the first girl he ever loved. "Her name was Rose. We began dating about six months after I left home. We were together for almost two years." He said, looking all around his surroundings as he walked along side his brother back to the office.

"What happened?" Stefan asked quietly from beside him.

Damon swallowed, feeling the bitterness of betrayal he hadn't felt in awhile.

"I caught her cheating on me with a guy named Trevor. Who also just happened to be my best friend at the time." Damon confessed.

Stefan grimaced and looked at his brother before glancing forwards. "That's sucks. I'm sorry."

"Don't be, she was a bitch anyway. Much better off just spending a couple hours with girls and sending them on there way." Just like that, his stoic expression was back on his face and his walls were built up once again.

* * *

"Well if it isn't the little slacker. So nice of you to finally join us." Damon said to Elena as she came into his office.

"You know Stefan said I could take the morning off." Elena reminded him.

"Well news flash, Stefan isn't the only boss around here. Nice of you to check with me too." Damon said, loving the flash of irritation in her eyes.

"I'm just going to ignore you." Elena said, not giving into him.

"Then I'm just going to keep bugging you." Damon grinned like a mad man, sitting back in his chair staring as she took a seat by his desk.

Elena had come in here to do her work because Stefan was in the middle of taking an important call and she didn't want to be a distraction. She sat down and began to organize the papers she had collected.

"Elena…. Elena… Elena…" Damon was whispering her name every ten seconds in different tones and voices.

Elena groaned and looked up at him. "How old are you? Five?"

"I know you are but what am I?" He mocked in a childs voice.

In the beginning, their arguments would begin over legitimate things but lately it was just whenever Damon felt the need to annoy her he would. There was something about the look in her eyes when she was scolding him or how she looked when she was angry. He couldn't deny it- she was attractive.

Another week was over and Stefan, Damon and Elena had been working tirelessly all day. Different employees all through departments were starting to send in official statements expressing their worries for their jobs over the state of the company.

Damon and Elena continued to argue over meaningless stuff and Stefan was finding himself getting stressed once more.

After a long day, the three met in front of the elevator to head downstairs. Bonnie had long since headed home as it was nearing 10 o'clock.

"It's been too long of a day." Stefan uttered resting his head against the elevator wall.

"You just need to relax brother."

"Speaking of relaxing, I'm going out for drinks with my friend tonight. You're welcome to join us." Elena offered and then looked at Damon. "I guess it would be alright if you came too." She said a little less enthusiastically.

"Well just because it would make you so happy." He responded, giving her a cheeky smile.

The three rode in Stefan's car to _Original_, some bar Caroline frequented.

Once inside, Elena gazed all around the place for a glimpse of blonde hair. She came across Caroline who was waving them over.

Elena led the guys over and gave Caroline a quick hug before sitting down. "Caroline Forbes this is Stefan and Damon Salvatore. Guys, this is Caroline." Stefan gave her a warm hello while Damon nodded in her direction.

"So since you don't bother to get as drinks at work I'm guessing you won't here either?" Damon, who had taken a seat next to the brunette, joked.

Elena rolled her eyes at him and told him her order. "Tequila sunrise please." He nodded and turned to look at her brother and Caroline. They seemed immersed in their own conversation, Stefan actually smiling for once and Caroline giving a light laugh at whatever he was saying.

Seeing this, Damon and Elena gave each other a knowing look before Damon cleared his throat loudly to get their attention.

They both snapped their heads to him in surprise. "Drinks?" He said slowly.

"Oh, apple martini please" Caroline requested before turning back to Stefan.

"Just a beer, thanks Damon." Stefan said before taking up where he left off with Caroline.

Elena was left alone with the two while Damon walked towards the bar. The two were still talking to mostly only each other so basically she just sat there. It's like they didn't even notice she was right there beside them. She couldn't even hear what they were talking about as the place grew louder with the hoard of college guys who just walked in.

In fact, the only way they could hear each other was because of the fact they had their heads so close together just a few inches more and they would be kissing.

Elena smiled lightly looking at her two friends. They seemed to really like each other and she could definitely see them together. It would be as if they balance each other out. She couldn't believe they had been there ten minutes already and they were this into each other.

It was a few minutes when Damon finally returned with their drinks. The place had quieted down a bit as the frat boys moved to another section of the bar and she could slightly hear what the conversation was about. Though they were still only answering to each other they had paused to thank Damon for the drinks.

Damon moved to sit beside her once again and it looked like she would be stuck talking to just him for the next few minutes.

"Thanks for the drink." She said before taking a sip.

"No problem." He said then smirked lightly. "I'll just take it out of your paycheck."

With all the times she had rolled her eyes at him, she was surprised they were still intact.

It was only a few moments of awkward silence later that they were finally let in on what Stefan and Caroline had been talking about.

"Oh my god, it's the best place for that!" Caroline exclaimed, loud and excited. Elena and Damon looked at her in surprise.

"Come on, we can go now!" She said jumping up to grab her coat. Stefan smiled at her enthusiasm and stood as well. It seemed as if they finally realized there were two other people with them as Stefan looked towards Damon and Elena.

"Oh, um Caroline's going to take me to one of her favorite bakeries downtown." He looked a little shy at his explanation. "Did you guys want to come?" He asked slowly.

"No, Elena's not hungry." Caroline said, giving Elena a look from behind Stefan's back then winking. "And she sure as hell can't stay here on her own so Damon should stay with her."

She came to give Elena a goodbye hug and threw a quick 'nice to meet you' at Damon. "We'll see you guys later." She said, taking Stefan's hand while he waved his hand lightly at his brother and his friend.

"Well, we just got ditched." Damon said bluntly as they both stared at the door.

"At least they seemed to be having a good time." Elena began to stand up, reaching for her coat.

"Where do you think you're going?" Damon asked, snatching the coat from her grasp.

"Home. As much fun it is to spend time with you, I'm tired." She explained, somewhat sarcastically.

"Nuh uh, I paid for these drinks and we're going to finish them." Damon explained, waving a hand at the four barely touched drinks at their table. As an example, he took a huge swig of his whiskey.

Elena sighed and sat down. _If I have to spend time with him, at least there's alcohol._

Elena took her drink and continued sipping while trying to avoid Damon's eye who was staring at her.

Finally her curiosity got the better of her. "What?" She asked, locking eyes with him, annoyed.

"Well we're not just going to sit here in silence. Let's talk about something."

Elena gave him a dubious look. "Like what? What on earth could we possibly talk about without getting into a fight?"

It was Damon's turn to roll his eyes at her and he took a gulp of his drink. "Where are you from?"

She gave him one last look, hesitating, but answering none the less. At least he was trying. She took a mouthful of her drink before answering. "Mystic Falls, Virginia."

He raised an eyebrow at her answer. "Virginia? That's a little far."

Elena shrugged. "I wanted something more than a small town life."

"So you come to the big apple." Elena nodded.

"Do you miss home?" He asked looking at her intently.

"Sometimes. As much as I hated everyone in town knowing everything about me and what was going on in my life, I do kind of miss the familiarity of it all." Elena said, not knowing why she was telling Damon of all people things like this.

She wanted to stop. Having gotten to know Damon in the last few weeks, she knew he would take whatever information she gave to him and find a way to use it to his advantage. She didn't need him to have any more ammunition against her. So she started asking the questions.

"Why are you doing this?" At this, he gave her a questioning look.

"Well I know you might not be used to the cool kids talking to you but-"

She cut him off. "I meant helping with the Empire. Stefan never really talked about his family much but I do know that you never wanted anything to do with the company."

He just looked at her, the alcohol was making him let loose a little bit and he blamed that for the things that came out of his mouth.

"I know a lot of people think I'm the devil, you included," he gave her a look out of the corner of his eye. "But I do love my little brother. I wouldn't want him to have to handle all of this by himself. Besides, He's too young and pretty to start growing grey hair." Like a defense mechanism, he made a joke to take the edge off the seriousness of his words.

"Why did you take the job? Stefan mentioned that he offered it to you before and you rejected him." An answer for an answer sounds fair to him.

Elena shrugged. "I knew he wouldn't have had you offer it to me unless he was desperate. He usually takes no as an answer from me but then you were calling and I had seen how stressed he had been that day so I figured he must really need the extra help. And what would it hurt: earn money and experience and get to catch up with my best friend."

She looked up to see him staring at her with an expression she didn't recognize. They were locked in a staring contest for minutes before she realized what was happening.

Elena wondered what was going on with her. This was _Damon_. Why were they having such a serious conversation? This was very odd and now having realized it, she felt awkward. It was definitely time to go.

She cleared her throat and once again rose from her seat. "It's late. I should be getting home."

"I'll walk with you." He said snapping out of it and standing up as well.

Elena just needed to be alone for a while. It was getting too warm in here, the alcohol was getting to her and she couldn't think straight.

"No that's okay, you don't need to." She said, trying to give him a smile to thank him for the kind gesture.

Damon laughed at her words and she looked at him confused. "This is New York City, Elena. I need to." Explaining his reaction when the saw the look on her face.

She sighed, he was right. It was now almost 11:30 and there was quite a walk back to her house. It wouldn't be the best idea to walk back all alone. Especially considering she didn't know the area too well yet.

"Okay." She conceded and led them out the door.

They cool air hit them as soon as they stepped outside. Elena pulled her light jacket closer to her body and began walking.

The two kept a comfortable distance away from each other. Damon had his hands in his pockets and started whistling lightly. Partly to break the silence and partly to annoy Elena. Elena wasn't paying attention though; she was too caught up in her own thoughts to be aware of her surroundings.

She didn't like this: before she knew where she stood with Damon. He was an ass, and she would call him out on it. But now, she's learned that deep down there's an actually semi decent guy whose just trying to help his little brother out and now she couldn't look at him the same way.

She had no idea how to act around him now that they had in fact had a civil, real conversation.

After almost half an hour, they arrived to the front of her apartment building.

_Oh god what am I supposed to say to him._

"Well, this is it." Elena said pointing to the building behind her. "Thank you. For walking me home." She said awkwardly.

"No problem." He was only making it worse for her by not throwing in some sarcastic comment. Thankfully he ended the pitiful silence for her.

"I'll see you Monday."

"Yeah, see you Monday." She nodded and turned to go inside.

The next morning, she woke up to the ringing of her cell. "Hello?" She asked groggily, not bothering to glance at the caller ID.

"Elena? Hi, it's Mason. We met the other day…" She noted he sounded a little nervous as she sprung up in bed at the sound of his voice.

"Mason! Hi, how are you?" She tried to sound casual but was trying to get her mind to wake up fully.

"I'm great. Look- I was just wondering if you wanted to go out to breakfast with me on Thursday morning? It's my only day off this week and I would really like to see you again."

She smiled to herself, biting her lip and she contemplated his offer quickly. "I would love to."

"Great, I'll think of the perfect place and text you the directions okay?" She could hear the smile in his voice and tried to mask her excitement as well.

"Sounds great. I can't wait."

* * *

**A/N: Hope you guys liked this chapter! A couple more developments for the plot- inlcuding a possible relationship for Stefan and Caroline! I find that odd though, because while I love their friendship on the show I've never really liked the romantic possibility between the two on the show. Having said that, when i started writing this, i couldnt get that particular storyling out of my head for them so it just came naturally for them to be together in this one. What do you guys think about this new relationship? what about Damon and Elena's little chat? I'm really excited about what I've written so far and I hope you guys feel the same. Thanks to all the people who have followed this story and/or reviewed! I love hearing your thoughts!**

**xoxo, Laura**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: I do not own Vampire Diaries.**

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_Would you trust them?_

"_Just a few weeks ago, The Salvatore Empire was handed down to the two young sons of Giuseppe Salvatore who recently passed away due to a heart attack. Its no secret that not only are the consumers who relied on the Salvatore Empire to produce a majority of their household items and media outlets are worried about the state of the company but an inside source tells us many of the employees are concerned as well._

_And with good reason. Lockwood Inc. has recently made statements about how they doubt the new ownership. They used the boy's age as a main argument- saying they were too young to know what they're doing._

_But their age isn't the only problem. An inside source gave us the exclusive on the two brothers. So once you get through reading this- ask yourself: do you really want to invest your money into or support a company run by these young men?_

_Let's start with the oldest: Damon Salvatore aged 27 is a playboy by any means. Though the main concern with this guy is that he didn't want anything to do with the company up until he father died! That's right; in fact he was so against running the company that he and his father had a major falling out over it. He left home at the tender age of 18 and never went back. _

_So obviously he does not care about the company, and that means he wouldn't care about you: the customer. _

_Now with Stefan: this guy is just a player. Not with the ladies though, no. We caught up with an old friend of his from university who told us about Stefan's mischievous deeds in school. _

"_He seemed like a nice guy. Kind and soft spoken to your face but would turn around and stab you in the back. I had to work on a project with him in one of our classes- but my mother got sick and I was torn between going home to see her and getting the project out of the way. It was worth a fair amount of our grade too. I talked to Stefan about it, he assured me he could handle it on his own and told me to go be with my mother. He said 'I've got it covered'. So he finished it and put both our names on it- I thought it was extremely cool of him. The day after we presented the professor called me into his office, told me Stefan said I left all the work for him to do. The prof gave me a zero and I ended up flunking the class. I don't want anything to do with the Salvatore Empire if he's running it."_

Elena scoffed and crinkled up the newspaper. She could not believe they were stooping this low. Its one thing to air out the family's dirty laundry like they had with Damon's story but its another to completely fabricate one like they had done to make Stefan look bad.

Stefan doesn't have an evil bone in his body. He would never do what they said he had done to someone. Besides, he and Elena were paired up for everything. They knew they could count on each other.

The weekend had been quite dull. Although she did have an interesting chat with Caroline on Sunday about Friday night. It seemed as if she and Stefan had really hit it off. Caroline looked so happy while talking about him and they had already made plans to see each other again.

She dressed in a black pencil skirt and a navy blue blouse with ruffles down the front. She needed to feel professional and attractive if she was going to start new today.

She woke up determined to make a change. First she was going to do her best to get along with Damon. He had shown her the other night that there was more to him than sarcasm and hostility and it would really benefit their work if they could be friends. Or at least, somethign along those lines. As she read the newspaper in the morning, reading the lies they told about her best friend and they stories they dug up from their past- all in the efforts to tear them down- fueled the fire in her that drives her to prove people wrong.

She would put even more time and effort into helping Damon and Stefan get the company back on its feet. It would take a lot of work, but she knew they could do it.

So, in order to start the day off differently and better- she stopped at a Starbucks on her way to work, grabbed three coffees and continued on her way.

Damon and Stefan were in Stefan's office going over the latest news article when she walked in, coffees in hand with a bright smile on her face. Elena felt they needed to be as positive as possible to get this done.

Damon looked at her surprised as she placed the drinks down in front of them and raised his eyebrows at her cheery character.

"I guess you haven't seen the newspaper this morning." He concluded taking a sip of his coffee. He raised the cup towards her in thanks as he felt the rush of warm liquid flow down his throat.

"Actually I did. And it only makes me that much more determined to help you guys sort this thing out."

Stefan smiled wearily at her outlook on life and took his coffee. "Unfortunately, it just got a little bit harder. Two of our major investors just dropped out." Stefan explained, sighing at the fact.

Damon looked at his brother and corrected him. "Well two of our major overseas investors. We still have all of the investors in the U.S."

Elena gasped lightly and slapped him gently on the arm. "Don't jinx it!' She exclaimed.

Stefan let out a loud laugh as she reminded him of her quirky ways and beliefs.

Damon looked a mixture of shocked and amused at her random, slightly immature outburst. "How old are you? Five?" He mocked her playfully.

A light knock was heard on the door and Stefan invited the guest in. Bonnie walked in and seemed a little nervous.

"Is everything okay?" Elena asked, noting the look of apprehension of the girl's face.

"I just thought you guys might want to know," She started, looking at each of the three, "I've been hearing rumors all around the office about some people trying to find jobs elsewhere. Everybody's really worried about the company going down and a lot of people are preparing for it to happen sooner rather than later." She sent them a pity smile and walked back out after hearing the phone ring at her desk.

The three turned back towards each other and let out a collective groan. "We need to show them that we're fixing things. It may not be a fast or explicit as they would like but we are doing something." Elena said.

"Well we could let them know that if we knew for sure that we still have all the things in place to run a successful business." Damon said bitterly.

Bonnie's voice came over the intercom. "Stefan, Mr. Riviera is on line 3 for you. The huge investor from Italy."

"Thanks. I'll take it right now."

"Bonjourno Mr. Riviera. How are you today sir?" Stefan said politely into the phone.

"Yes I understand. It has been a rocky transition but rest assured we are doing everything we can to get things back on track." Stefan looked anxiously between Elena and Damon.

"What can I do to convince you of that?" He paused as he listened to the person on the other end of the phone. His eyes widened at whatever the person said and he raised a hand to rub his forehead.

"Please know that you are very important to the company but as you know I've been a little busy at the moment, I can't just drop everything and fly to Italy right now."

Damon and Elena looked at each other, feeling as if they were about to lose another investor.

"No, no, wait. I think I can work something out. I'll be there tomorrow, we'll be in touch." Stefan said before saying goodbye and hanging up the phone.

"What just happened?" Damon asked sternly.

Stefan groaned and looked towards them both. "I'm going to Italy."

"Do you really think now is the best time to take a vacation?" Damon asked mockingly.

"He gave me an ultimatum- fly out to show our commitment or lose him as an investor. What was I supposed to do Damon?"

"Maybe this will be good. While you're over there, you can fly to a few more places that invest with us to show them that respect as well. I'm sure we can handle things here for a few days." Elena said, playing peacekeeper as both Damon and Stefan's anger was rising.

Stefan left immediately after the call to pack and board his flight to Italy. Damon and Elena were left to their own devices and were while Damon was calling U.S investors Elena was thinking of ways to make the employees feel secure in their jobs.

* * *

It had been two days since Stefan left and all Elena couldn't think of anything that they could do to reassure the employees. She didn't want it to seem phony; she wanted them to know that Stefan and Damon were doing everything they could to get the company back under control. She wanted them to understand how difficult it has been adjusting to their new roles but they really are doing the best they can.

Elena looked up from the position she had taken at Stefan's desk when Damon stormed into the room.

"What's wrong now?" She asked apprehensively, deciding against making a quirky comment.

"I just got off the phone with our main manufacturer- the one who produces pretty much all of the technology for the Empire." Damon said, quickly explaining the big deal about them. "They were kind enough to let me know that unless we start proving that we know how to run a business, they're not going to renew their contract with us."

"When is the contract supposed to end?" Elena asked, trying to see how much time they have.

"Three weeks. Apparently they usually renew it way before necessary but the fact that we didn't set it up only helps to prove we're 'not doing too well'." Damon said, seething.

"Just calm down okay." Elena said, standing up to pace along with Damon.

"I just called the lawyer to check the contracts with a few other manufacturers; they're all up pretty soon too." Damon said, turning to look at her.

She stopped and saw how worried he seemed to be. She felt the strong urge to comfort him and let him know everything will be fine.

So that's what she did.

"So we meet with the heads of the manufacturing companies and prove to them we know what we're doing. Damon, this will work out. I promise." Elena said, locking eyes with him as they stood facing one another.

After a moment, Damon realized what was going on and cleared his throat loudly, looking anywhere but Elena.

"Right, I'll call them up. Arrange a meeting."

"You do that, and I'll start thinking of ways we can prove you and Stefan know what you're doing." Elena grinned lightly at him. Damon went straight to the phone and found the number.

To stress Damon out even more, the only opportunity the manufacturers were giving him to meet with them all was for the next day. This meant he and Elena had 24 hours to design a presentation that would prove to them that it would not be the wrong choice to renew the contracts.

Together, they went to work, barricading their selves in Stefan's office with poster boards and a computer and files on the manufacturers. They looked over the previous contracts with the companies they would be meeting with and brainstormed what they could add to them to help persuade the heads.

Seeing as Elena never really studied the business aspect of things she could only come up with limited suggestions, not knowing what would be too much or too little.

Damon seemed to be pretty irked the first little while but she put that on the fact that he was very stressed right now.

After coming up with new proposals for them, Elena recommended telling them about what Stefan and Damon are doing exactly to get the company back on track.

Hours later, the office was closing for the day but they stayed put. Bonnie offered to grab a quick dinner for them before she left for the day and returned a little while later with Chinese for the two.

"Thanks Bonnie. Have a good night."

"No problem Elena, good luck on the presentation." Like always, Bonnie did not pay a lot of attention to Damon and briefly glancing over to him before turning to leave.

"Yeah thanks judgy."

Damon turned back from yelling to the secretary's back to see Elena looking at him firmly. "She has a name you know."

"Everyone has a name Elena, but it's not necessary for me to know it." Damon said, before picking up a pack of noodles.

"Why not? You see her on a daily basis, talk to her everyday. How is it not worth the effort to know her name?" Elena was genuinely upset about how he chose to disregard someone who was essentially so close to him.

"Why does it matter whether or not I know her name, at the end of the day I don't plan to be here long anyway?" Damon said, giving her a look at her constant questioning.

"It matters because she's a person Damon, but you don't treat her like she is." She explained softly before adding bluntly. "Besides, you look like a total jerk when you call her one of your 'witty' nicknames.

Damon shrugged in return and they both went back to eating. Damon was starving; he had barely eaten anything all day- too consumed by work and stress. As he was digging into his box of sweet and sour meatballs, he scoffed as one fell onto the floor next to where he was currently sitting.

Elena, who had seen what had happened, looked disgusted as she watched him pick it up off the carpet with his chopsticks, blow on it and plop it in his mouth.

"Ew, Damon! That's disgusting."

Damon looked up, not bothering to look ashamed. "What? I'm starving, they clean these carpets on a regular basis and it'd be a waste to leave it."

He looked back up to her surprised to hear her let out a loud genuine laugh at his justification. He couldn't help but laugh along with her. It was different to see her smiling at him rather than glaring and he had to say he liked this better.

After devouring the rest of the food, they got straight back to work. Unfortunately taking more breaks then they should have, one would say something and the other would start a conversation- having nothing to do with the presentations- about it.

At one thirty in the morning, both exhausted and the fatigue was getting to them. They continued to piece together ideas and eventually they were done.

After that, they thought it would be smart to go over the presentation a few times. Damon would be saying most of it but Elena would be there to offer a new perspective and allow for more input.

Originally, when they were talking about the meeting, he hadn't asked her to present with him but she felt it would be beneficial to help him, lessen the stress as well. It continued to go unasked, but as soon as they started working on it together it was just assumed by both that they were in this together.

As hours continued to pass, they both grew more loose and silly. Words were mixed up and long tired pauses were given when they were close to falling asleep. Many laughs were shared over nothing in particular and they continued to get to know each other better.

It was three thirty when Damon suggested they should call it a night. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea or else we'll end up falling asleep during the meeting."

Damon laughed at the idea. "Great way to prove we can handle running a company- showing them nap time would help us out."

Elena didn't reject Damon's offer to drive her home and the short ride was in content silence. As he pulled up to the front of her building she thanked him but paused for a moment before turning back to face him.

He looked at her curiously. "You're doing a really good job Damon." That was all she said before she stepped out of the car and into the crisp night air.

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**A/N: This is kind of a filler chapter, it's setting up for some really big events that occur within the next few chapters, though I hope you still enjoyed it:) I should have another update sometime tomorrow, please review and let me know what you think!**

**xoxo, Laura**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: I do not own Vampire Diaries.**

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It was Thursday morning and Elena was running on only four hours of sleep. She had arrived home at around four in the morning and allowed herself an extra hour of sleep in order to be able to stay awake for the big meeting.

Elena was hurrying along in her morning routine, getting dressed to impress in black dress pants, a light pink blouse combined with a black blazer. She added a pair of heels to the mix and touched up her make-up.

She heard her phone buzzing from her nightstand and went over to check it.

_Hey, I found this cute little café right beside the bakery we met in. Meet me there in 30? I'm really looking forward to seeing you again -Mason_

Elena's eyes widened as she remember the breakfast date she had planned for the morning. It had completely slipped her mind with all that's been going on with the Empire.

_It's too late to cancel on him_. Elena decided that she would go and grab breakfast with him, make it a quick date and promise to make it up to him and then go meet Damon to run over the presentation.

Elena examined herself in the mirror once more before grabbing the presentation board and heading out the door. She waved a quite hello to her elderly neighbor down the hall and made her way to the café where Mason was waiting.

She got there and looked through the front window to see Mason sitting down at a table. She walked through the door and smiled when he stood up to greet her with a big grin on his face.

"Wow, suddenly I feel underdressed." He joked, glancing at her professional outfit and back to his dark blue jeans and t-shirt.

"No, you look great. Sorry for the formalness I have to head to work after this." She explained settling down into her seat he had pulled out for her and placing the board right beside her under the table.

_Quite the gentleman_ She thought happily to herself.

Mason lifted his hand to signal the waiter and they put in their orders.

"So tell me more about yourself. Have you lived in New York all your life?"

Elena laughed at the idea and shook her head. "No, I'm a small town girl. I just moved here a couple months ago actually." Mason nodded his head along and smiled at as she laughed. "What about you?"

"I grew up in Connecticut, but I spent a lot of time in the city as a child. I moved here a few years ago after college and got my job as a personal trainer at the gym. Love every second of living in the city." Mason smiled at her as the waiter brought over their drinks.

She took her cup of coffee into her hands and took a small sip of the brown liquid. She smiled in content; it was almost like she could feel the weariness leaving her body.

They continued getting to know each other over the next hour, getting more and more comfortable. Elena discarded her blazer to the back of her chair as the heat from the coffee soon overcame her. She really liked Mason so far. He was very polite, very sweet and easy on the eyes. He seemed interested in getting to know her just as much as she wanted to know him.

About fourty-five minutes into the date she heard her cell ringing from inside her handbag. He stopped in the middle of his sentence and she looked towards her bag. "Sorry, just ignore that. Go on." Elena smiled at him.

"No its okay, it could be important." He encouraged her and she smiled gratefully at him.

"I'll just be a second. "She promised, turning towards her bag and pulling her cell out. With a quick look at the caller ID she saw Jenna's name flash upon the screen. She hadn't spoken to her aunt in a while, having been busy with the company and settling in. She stood up and walked a little ways away from the table for some privacy.

"Hey! Jenna, what's up?" She asked, happy to hear from her aunt.

"Elena… something's happened." Jenna's somber tone broke through the phone and Elena's smile dropped from her face.

"What's wrong?" Elena felt her heart stopped as she was reminded of a similar conversation that happened a few years ago. The one that rewarded her with the worst happening of her life and she instantly grew more and more worried with the passing seconds as she could hear her aunt hesitating over the line.

"It's Jeremy."

* * *

Damon stood in his office that morning in front of the boards looking over everything he and Elena had put together late last night. All that was missing was one of the boards that Elena had taken home to complete and Elena herself. He had to say he was pretty impressed with the initiative she put in and the ideas she put forth.

She was definitely not who he thought she was when they first met and she was continuing to prove him wrong everyday. Although he was surprised that she wasn't here first thing in the morning to go over the presentation with him. He let that go, after all they did have a late night last night and she deserved some good rest.

He was actually looking forward to doing this meeting. They had come up with an amazing presentation and together they would sell the brothers to the manufacturers. They would make them see that they are more than just two young kids who have no experience. He and Elena had the presentation planned to a T and he had no doubt about the meetings.

He was in his office getting dressed in his best suit. Running over the presentation once more in his head.

Bonnie knocked once on his door and came in with two coffees in her hand. "Thought you two might need all the caffeine you can get after the late night." She said, barely glancing at him as she set the cups on his desk.

He kept his body turned towards the mirror as he was tying his navy blue tie. "Thanks Bonnie."

Bonnie paused, shocked at the words that had just come out of his lips and shook it off as she continued her way out of the room.

She smiled to herself as she sat back down at his desk. She had a feeling of what brought this change on.

With only an hour left till the big meeting, Damon was starting to worry when he realized Elena hasn't arrived yet. He repeatedly checked his phone for missed calls or messages from her and was disappointed each time when he saw nothing.

He tried to call her but it just went straight to voicemail each time and every text was marked unread. He tried her home phone and there was still no answer.

He continued to call, alternating between her home and cell number while pacing his office. He was starting to get really worried; he didn't think this was like her to just not show up. She knew how important this was, not only to him but to the company as well. She didn't seem like the kind of girl to just disappear with one of the most important meetings of their lives about to happen.

With ten minutes to the meeting he heard Bonnie outside his office greeting the heads of all the different manufacturers. She was leading them into the conference room and settling them with tea and coffee.

He looked once more and the boards and grew more worried and nervous, realizing he would have to do this on his own. He started pacing back and forth figuring out how to rework the formerly two person presentation.

He heard Bonnie knock on his door and she informed him that he was five minutes late to begin. Damn, he was getting lost in his own head.

He asked Bonnie for her help to carry the boards over to the conference room. He stopped just outside the door and closed his eyes. He willed himself to get through this and prepped himself for what he was about to face.

He sighed once more and walked in, ready to face the piranhas.

* * *

Damon stared out the window after shaking the hand of the last leaving manufacturer head. The meeting was crap. He was stumbling all throughout; improvising at the parts of the presentation he didn't have. Stuttering on the speeches that Elena was supposed to have said, taking too long and hesitating before responding to their questions. He knew not one of them was going to resign their contracts with the Salvatore Empire.

And it was entirely his fault.

No it was Elena's fault. Elena- the one who didn't show up, the one who was responsible for one third of the presentation and then just mysteriously disappeared off the face of the earth.

_Damn it, where the hell is she?_

Every time he thought of her mysterious absents his mind was sent into panicked state. The meeting had now been over for an hour and still no word from Elena. He had Bonnie continue to keep calling her, seeing if there was any response but nothing.

He stepped out into the foyer where Bonnie was seated and heard the elevator ding. He turned, hoping to see Elena walk out but was disappointed. Instead, he saw a dark haired man about his height holding what looked to be a jacket and the missing presentation board.

The man saw Damon staring and came up to him.

"Hi, I'm looking for Elena Gilbert." The man explained, looking between Damon and Bonnie.

Damon's eyes narrowed in confusion at the man. "Why?"

The mysterious man held up the object in his hands and started to look at Damon oddly after his cold tone. "She left her jacket and this thing with me earlier by accident." He said, holding both objects up.

Damon became furious with this revelation. She had ditched him for a date. After all the trust he had put into her, after all their hard work for this meeting, she abandoned it all for a boy.

He grabbed the jacket from the man's hands and gripped it tightly in his hands. "I'll make sure she gets it. Who are you by the way?"

"Oh, sorry. Mason Lockwood." He announced, holding out his hand to Damon.

Damon felt his blood run cold. Not only had she ditched him for a date, she ditched him for a date with the enemy.

"You can leave now." Damon said coldly, storming towards his office.

He threw the jacket down on the chair across from his desk and the board in the garbage. He was livid. He had begun to think they were friends he had actually started to trust her and believe in her and she threw everything back in his face.

She chose a date over him; she was sleeping with the man whose family was trying to bring down the Empire. And she was too much of a coward to show her face afterwards.

He couldn't believe he thought she was different from any other girl out there. They all do the same things- they make you trust them and throw it back in your face.

* * *

**A/N: I'm sorry I thought I was going to be able to post this last night but things came up. I promise I will do my best to post chapter 9 in a few hours. I leave for vacation tomorrow morning and will be gone for a week so unfortunately no updates for a while.**

**So, things are obviously a little tense right now! The next chapter focuses on Elena and will be set back in Mystic Falls. What do you guys think of Damon's reaction? How about the date with Mason? **

**Thanks to all those who favorite/review or put this on story alert. It means a lot to me and keeps me going:)**

**xoxo, Laura**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: I do not own Vampire Diaries.**

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Elena was practically running through the corridors of Mystic Falls Hospital. After barely giving Mason an explanation of her quick departure she rushed out the door and grabbed a taxi to the airport. She booked a ticket for the earliest flight she could get back to Virginia.

The flight was about three and a half hours long and all she could do was think back to what her Aunt had told her.

"_What's happened? Is he okay?" Elena felt the tears burning her eyes and blinked them back._

"_He's in the hospital. He overdosed, Matt found him in his apartment early this morning." Jenna explained and Elena bit her lip as she felt more tears come to her eyes._

"_I'm leaving right now; I'll be there in a few hours." Elena promised and found the courage to ask one more question before she hung up._

"_How bad is it?" she asked, not wanting to hear the answer._

"_Its… you should just get here as soon as you can sweetie." Jenna answered before hanging up._

And that's what Elena did, she dished out a months rent for a plane ticket and spent three and a half hours sitting next to a crying baby. She was too worried to try and get some sleep. She kept running through all the possibilities of what she would find when she arrived at the hospital.

She sped up to the receptions desk that she was once so familiar with. She gave her little brothers name to the nurse and was pointed in the direction of his room.

She peeked her head inside the room and saw Jenna and Logan sitting on the couch together watching Jeremy.

Jeremy, who was lying in the white cotton bed, with a tube coming out of his throat and a million cords attached to his body leading to all different kinds of machines.

She opened the door wider to reveal herself and her aunt immediately jumped up and pulled her into her arms. It was obvious she had been crying a lot over the last little while and held onto Elena tightly.

Elena responded just the same and pulled back to look Jenna in the eye. "How bad is it exactly?"

Jenna let out a quiet sob and Logan stood up to pull her into his arms. Taking over so she didn't need to speak he answered Elena. "It looked like he was unconscious for a while before Matt found him. As long as his stats keep improving over the night, they think he'll make a good recovery with some work. Any longer and it would've been too late."

Elena finally let the tears fall that had been threatening her all afternoon. She nodded and turned to look at her brother. She really hoped this time would be different. He would finally get his act together and not cause them any more worry. _I guess that's just a little too much to ask for._

"You guys should go home, get some sleep. I'll stay here and let you know if anything changes." Elena said, seeing how exhausted her aunt and uncle looked.

Jenna looked as if she wanted to protest but Logan agreed for the both of them, shooting Elena a grateful looked as he guided Jenna out of the room after one quick hug. "Call if you need anything." He said before taking his wife home for a much needed break.

Elena pulled one of the chairs closer to Jeremy's bed and took his hand in hers. She examined his features. Taking in the paleness of his skin, the dark circles under his eyes and how skinny he appeared to be.

As she continued to stare, she grew more and more angry. How could he do this to them. Haven't they been through enough hurt and loss without him recklessly risking his life for a thirty minute high?

Hasn't he had enough of hospitals and nurses as she has? Doesn't he want more out of life than to be known as the troubled orphan child? Elena cried as she thought of all the potential he had and what he was wasting his life on.

A few hours into the night, Elena continued to sit right by his side once again. Making small talk with the nurses who came to check up on him. She was startled as he began coughing as if he was choking. She yelled for a nurse and stood up worried as she saw his eyes open slightly and looking scared.

Within seconds, doctors along with two nurses were racing into the room tending to Jeremy right away. Elena gripped his hand tightly letting him know she was still there and wasn't going anywhere.

Apparently he had started breathing on his own again and the respirator he had been hooked up to was on a different pace than he was causing him to freak out and his body to react to the foreign device in his body.

After the doctor had taken out the tube the nurses sedated Jeremy to give him more time to recover and heal. Elena spent the night by his side, resting her head on the corner of his bed, never once letting go of his hand.

It was early morning when Elena woke up, not having had the best sleep. She saw Jeremy had regained more color throughout the night and quickly went to grab a coffee from the cafeteria.

As she returned back to the room she called Logan to give him a quick update, telling them they didn't need to rush in this morning and get as much sleep as they needed.

Only a half hour later, still sitting beside his bed now with a magazine in hand she heard him groan from beside her.

She threw the magazine aside and sat up straight catching him just as his eyes opened. He looked confused and groggily muttered. "Elena? What are you doing here? Where are we?"

It was almost like déjà vu but the roles were reversed.

"We're at the hospital Jeremy. You overdosed on painkillers. You've been out for almost two days." As Elena explained the situation she felt tears roll down her cheeks. She hated being here in this position once again, being here to watch her brother wake up from an overdose having to explain to him that he was so close to dying.

"Elena, please don't cry. "Jeremy said looking away from his sister. She grabbed a cup of water from the table and gave it to him. He drank it fast and turned to look at her again.

"If you're going to give me another one of your lectures, don't bother. It was an accident." His voice was stronger thanks to the clear liquid and he seemed to be fully alert.

Elena was about to respond but stopped herself when the doctor walked through the door, happy to see Jeremy awake and responsive.

She left for a small walk as the doctor examined Jeremy. She pulled out her phone to call Jenna and let her know of the good news.

Jenna was happy to hear that he was awake and doing better than they thought he would be. She said she and Logan would be there within the hour to see him.

Elena went back to his room after the doctor was through and they sat in silence, neither wanting to talk about the elephant in the room.

Jenna came quickly and couldn't stop hugging Jeremy. Jeremy wasn't happy with all the attention she was giving him and let it show. He wasn't very talkative and still not in a good mood. It seemed as if he hadn't had the usual ephiany that seemed to come with near death experiences like it happens in the movies.

He sent Jenna home that night after they all sat through a quiet awkward dinner in his room.

He also told Elena she could leave but she refused. They needed to talk.

"I don't care if you want to hear it or not. I'm going to talk and you're going to listen." She started her voice strong and firm. Daring him to deny her as he sent a glare her way. "You say it was an accident, Jeremy? Just like the last time was an accident- the one that was ruled a suicide attempt. Jeremy what are you doing with your life? Why do you feel the need to turn to drugs?" Elena stopped to catch her breath as tears streamed down her face.

"I know things haven't been easy since- since mom and dad died. I know there's been a lot of pressure but you are so much better than this. You deserve more than just wasting away with stoners and junkies… You are smart and kind and have so much talent and potential if you just try."

"Elena stop trying to be a saint. Stop telling me I have so much to live for that my life really isn't as bad as I'm making it out to be. Just shut up!" He yelled his voicing giving out near the end.

"Jeremy, all I'm telling you is the truth. Do you think mom and dad would want this life for you? Do you think they would be proud to see you in and out of rehab? Not able to keep a job?"

"Well how am I supposed to know? They're not here now. They're gone; they've been gone for a while now. They're not coming back so what does it matter what they would want."

Elena paused as she addressed something she had been scared to before. Not wanting to hear him admit what she always felt.

"I know they're not here." She started. "And I know you hate me because it's my entire fault but please don't let the fact that they're not here to help you anymore get in the way of living a good life."

Jeremy had tears in his eyes too and looked at Elena shocked at the words coming out of her mouth.

"Elena… I don't hate you." He looked hurt at the thought of that. "And I sure as hell don't blame you for what happened. Shit happens. You guys were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just because they were picking you up doesn't make you responsible. You weren't the one drunk driving behind the wheel. I would never blame you for their deaths Elena. Have you thought that all along?" He looked at her upset.

Elena let out a sob at this revelation. All these years of thinking he turned to drugs to get away from her and try to forget her was wrong. She felt so relieved to hear these words come out of his mouth but she still didn't understand, why did he try to distance himself from her?

"Then why choose drugs instead of talking to Jenna or me? If you don't blame me then what is it?" Elena croaked out, moving closer to his bed, sitting on the edge.

Jeremy shook his head, letting tears fall freely from his eyes. "I didn't know what to do Elena. They died and suddenly people were either treating us like babies or the outcast orphans. They just expected us to go off the rails so I did. I tried it and it was the only way to escape. Escape the expectations and the hurt. It got the confusion and loneliness to leave me alone, just for a little while. It seemed like it was the only thing I could turn to." His chest heaved, feeling relieved at finally being able to say all his fears out loud.

"You could've turned to me, Jeremy. I'm you're sister, I will always be there for you." She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and grabbed his hand tightly. "I love you Jer."

"I know that now Elena." He said. "I love you too."

She pulled him into a tight hug, feeling relieved and happy that they finally discussed all this and talked about what had happened.

They pulled away from each other and just stared before breaking into laughter. "Why has it taken us so long to really talk about this?" Jeremy asked, letting out a small sob.

"I always thought you blamed me for what happened. I was too afraid to hear you say it out loud." She shook her head thinking about how many years they've lost because of her cowardness.

"I want to get better Elena. I want to make my parents and my older sister proud." He said, holding her hand and giving her a serious look. "I just- it's so hard to stop. And after everything…"

"I'll be there for you. Every step of the way. I promise, we'll get through this together Jeremy. Like we should've done before." Elena said pulling him in for another hug.

They continued to talk and eventually called a nurse in to ask for information about rehab centers. Jeremy had heard from Jenna how well Elena was adjusting to the city and wouldn't think of pulling her away from it.

"Jeremy, it doesn't matter, New York will always be there, and we need to be together right now."

"Elena there's no point in you leaving. I'll be living in the center for a few months at least anyway. You can be there for me without actually being there Elena."

"Well in any case, I think you should get away from Mystic Falls. Being here with all these memories isn't going to help you heal. Being away from here has been great and I think it could really help to get away for a little while." Elena suggested, looking at the brochures for rehabilitation centers outside the state.

There's a good one in Washington, only a couple hours for New York by plane so I could fly out to see you every so often. Or even better, one in Connecticut. I could take the train down every weekend." Elena said rambling on looking over all the brochures.

He laughed at her encouraging outlooks and patiently listened as she told him all the highlights of each center.

They spent the afternoon getting reacquainted with each other. There wasn't much for Jeremy to say, both not wanting to dwell on his main habits of drugs so he kept up constant questions about Elena's life in New York City.

She told him all about her apartment and Caroline. And about her job at the Salvatore Empire. Elena talked about reconnecting with Stefan and how infuriating Damon was to be around. As she was telling him about Stefan and Damon- she came to the terrible realization that she completely left Damon all on his own for the meeting.

She couldn't believe she had forgotten all about the meeting. Well, it wasn't very hard actually considering her brother almost died but she felt terrible for leaving Damon all on his own.

She excused herself and walked outside the front doors for some fresh air and privacy. It had been two days since the meeting and she needed to call Damon and explain what happened. He was probably worried about her, she didn't tell anybody she was leaving and she hadn't spoken to anyone since that morning.

She listened as his phone rang and rang before finally going to voicemail. She decided against leaving him a message, figuring she would try again later.

She went back in and continued to talk more with Jeremy. After consulting with Jenna and his doctors and giving him a little time to think about it and talk to a councilor Jeremy decided on a rehab center in Washington.

It was only a couple hours away from both Virginia and New York. So both Jenna and Elena could easily fly out to see him whenever they wanted. It was far enough away that Jeremy could get away from his reputation in Mystic Falls and try to recover with a clear head. His doctor had called the head councilor there and arranged for a room for Jeremy straight away. The sooner he started treatment the better.

Elena arranged flights for both Jeremy and herself to fly down to Washington the next day. Jenna of course had offered to come as well but Elena insisted she and Jeremy needed the time alone together.

The night before, Jeremy asked Elena to run to his apartment to grab him a few things. He wrote down the places to look at in his apartment and she went there. As soon as she stepped in the room, she could smell the old food sitting on the kitchen counter. Plates were piled high in the sink, beer bottles broken and prescription bottles lying randomly about the place. She tried not to focus on those things, remembering that they together were turning over a new leaf.

She went into his bedroom and grabbed a duffle bag to out throw some clothes into. She followed his instructions and opened one of the drawers of his dressers and under some socks found what he must have wanted.

Inside was a photo that made Elena smile. It consisted of Jeremy, herself and her parents. It was taken about a year before the accident- when everybody was still happy and Elena and Jeremy were still close. It was taken on the steps of their family home that now belonged to Jenna. Seeing her outfit, she recalled that the picture was taken by Jenna herself just before her first football game that she would be cheering at.

Elena and Jeremy's parents, Miranda and Grayson Gilbert were sitting side by side, hands held together on the top step. Elena all dolled up in her cheerleading uniform with her hair in a high ponytail and Jeremy, sitting on shorts and a t-shirt and the young age of 14 smiling his big grin. Elena was captured mid laugh and she felt tears in her eyes once more as she remembered what had made her laugh so hard.

Elena had been more than a little nervous for her first game and was not in the mood to take pictures that night. But her parents had sat her down and her dad had put his arm around her pulling her into his side and told her one of her favorite jokes of his. It never failed to make her laugh out loud.

That same picture was sitting on her nightstand in New York.

Along with the picture was a sketchbook. She forgot that Jeremy used to love drawing and he had been very good at it too. She refrained from looking at the pictures in it. Feeling as if it might be personal to him and an invasion of his privacy. She grabbed the two important items and placed them in the duffle bag as well.

And looking over his apartment once more, she closed the door behind her and headed back to see her brother.

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**A/N: Unfortunately, no Damon in this chapter-please forgive me! Like I mentioned in the last chapter, Im going on vacation tomorrow morning so unfortunately I won't be able to update for a few days but I promise the next updates will be worth the wait(hopefully). I know as much about medical stuff as I do about business so please excuse any inaccuracies. **

**Let me know how you guys feel about Jeremy and Elena's relationship: was the story believable? I wasn't to sure how it would seem to others...**

**Thanks for all the love:)**

**xoxo, Laura**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: I do not own Vampire Diaries.**

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"Elena stop fussing. I'll be fine here." Jeremy said as Elena continued to fluff the pillows on the blue bed. Meanwhile he was busy unpacking his duffle bag. Throwing clothes randomly in the dresser and took the family picture and set it on the night table. He set his sketchbook on his desk and leaned against it.

"I'm just trying to help you settle in." Elena said turning to face Jeremy, who was sitting in a chair by the desk.

They had arrived at the rehab center an hour ago and they have just been shown Jeremy's room. Immediately Elena set to work on cleaning the already spotless room. It was a decent room. It was a private room, with a twin sized bed and a window overlooking the beautiful garden outside. It came with a desk, a lamp and a small bookshelf. A fair sized dresser sat just to the right of the door.

"I just… want you to feel comfortable here."

"I know you do and I appreciate that. But it's kind of hard to feel comfortable in a place filled with strangers who know you have problems." Jeremy said, telling his sister the truth.

"I can stay for a little while longer if you want me to." She offered, feeling bad about leaving him all alone in a new place.

"No, you've missed enough work because of me already. You have a flight to catch. I'll be fine, it just takes some adjusting." Jeremy said getting up and putting his hands on Elena's shoulders to reassure her.

"Remember, you can call me if you need anything. Anything at anytime okay?" Elena reminded him, now that they had talked and he was giving her and recovery a chance she wasn't going to let him down.

"I know. I will, I promise." Jeremy nodded. "Elena, I promise I really am going to try, I know- I know it'll be hard but I am going to try this time. I'm going to fight this addiction." Jeremy said, looking at his older sister.

Elena smiled lightly at his determination. "I know you are Jeremy, you're going to be just fine. And I'll be here to help you get there." She pulled him in for one more tight hug before letting go.

"You need to go catch your flight."

Elena looked hesitant once more but he gave her a gentle playful push out the door and she laughed.

"I love you Jer."

"Love you too 'Lena."

It was a short two hour flight to New York. Luckily she was able to sleep a little more on the plane. She was planning on heading straight to the office. She had only tried twice more to contact Damon but still got no answer.

She needed to find him and explain her absence. It was about 3 o'clock in the afternoon when she got out of the taxi. She wasn't dressed in her normal work clothes but she figured that hardly mattered. She wondered briefly if Stefan was back from Italy yet, she couldn't remember where else he had planned to go afterwards or how long it would take.

She took the elevator up and heard the familiar ding as she reached her floor. The doors opened up and she saw Bonnie sitting at her desk as usual.

Bonnie looked up and looked surprised as she realized it was Elena.

"Oh my god, where have you been?" She asked, getting up and walking around the desk to where Elena stood.

Elena sighed and smiled wryly at the girl she considered a friend.

"It's a really long story. Is Damon here? I kind of just left without any word and I need to explain what happened." Elena said, starting towards his office.

"Umm, yeah he's here. "Bonnie looked apprehensive at the idea of Elena seeing Damon. "Maybe now isn't the best time."

"I know he's probably really busy but I need to explain why I missed the meeting." Elena explained.

She knew he was probably worried about her. She had completely ditched the meeting and hadn't been in contact with him in days. She hoped he wouldn't be too upset about her disappearance.

She knocked once on the door and stepped through, shutting it behind her. Damon was just ending a call when he looked up and saw her.

"Well well well, look who finally decided to grace us with her presence." He said snidely.

_Or he could be pissed…_ Elena thought, honestly a little hurt by his reaction.

"I'm so sorry Damon. I know I bailed on the meeting but-"She was about to tell him about her family emergency when he cut her off with a cold response

"Don't even try to make excuses. I know what happened." Damon said standing up from his seat and walking around to lean on the desk. All the while glaring at her.

"You do?" She asked. If he knew what happened, why was he treating her so coldly?

He laughed bitterly at her. "You know, I had actually started to think you were competent. I was starting to like having you around and then you go and prove what I should've known all along. You showed me how you are just like everyone else. How selfish you are."

Elena felt as though she had been slapped. "Selfish?"

"Don't act like you're so innocent. You knew how important that meeting was Elena and you just forgot about it because something I'm sure you thought was so much more important came up. So yes, selfish. Because of you, I completely messed up that meeting, I made an idiot out of myself and I'm certain I lost all of those manufacturers."

She couldn't believe how he was acting. He was calling her selfish? Acting as if what happened was nothing. Like a meeting was more important than her little brothers close death. She was growing angrier with every thing he said.

"I'm sorry I missed the meeting Damon but how dare you talk to me like that. Like what happened in my life is nothing compared to some big business meeting." Elena's voice was rising in outrage as he sat there looking indifferent.

"Oh please, spare me the lecture. You know the meeting was much more important than what you had going on." Damon said, scoffing at the idea that a date was more important than the fate of the company.

"And not only do you ditch the meeting but you don't show up for days afterward. You know Stefan's in Europe; I've been dealing with everything on my own because you were too much of a coward to own up to your stupid decisions." Damon yelled, stepping right towards her. His words hit her hard. Not only was he treating her like trash, calling her not only selfish but also a coward only for wanting to be there for her brother but he was back to being the ass he was when they first met.

She had thought they were getting somewhere. The night they were working on the presentation they were really starting to get along, she actually found herself enjoying his company. She found they actually had a lot in common and could talk about all kinds of different things. Now she realized she just took it out of context. They were both tired that night and weren't thinking clearly. It was obvious he was still just a jerk only caring about himself and she couldn't believe she was beginning to think otherwise.

She turned her head away from him so he wouldn't see the tears coming to her eyes. She blinked them back before turning to face him once more.

"You're right; I did make a stupid decision. Trying to help an ass like you." It wasn't the best way to end the conversation, but so much as happened in the last few days and she was exhausted. All she wanted to do now was go home, curl up in bed and cry.

She stormed out of his office heading straight towards the elevator and heading to her apartment.

She chose to walk up the stairs rather than take the elevator to her floor as a way to blow off steam and as she reached the final step she heard an incessant knocking on what she found was her door.

Standing in front of her apartment was Caroline.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Elena asked, walking towards her home as Caroline spun around and pulled her into a tight embrace.

"Ohmygod, where have you been?! I've been coming here everyday trying to find you. You haven't responded to my call in days." Caroline said, pulling back from the hug. "Elena, are you okay?" She asked, concerned as she noticed Elena's puffy eyes.

"I'm sorry I never called you back. I had to fly back home for a few days." Elena explained, opening her door and gesturing for Caroline to follow her in.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Elena had shared with Caroline her specific details about her past and she knew how hard it was for Elena to be in Mystic Falls.

Just as Elena was about to suck it up and tell her friend she was fine, she paused. She couldn't pretend to be okay. So much as happened in the last few days and she just needed to both let it all out and take it all in.

"Yes." Elena confirmed, letting the tears flow from her eyes.

Caroline sat Elena down on the couch and went to the kitchen to make them both some tea. She brought the two mugs over and pulled a blanket around Elena's shoulders.

"Come on; tell me what's going on." Caroline said, inviting Elena to let it all out and offering her shoulder to cry on both physically and metaphorically.

"Jeremy overdosed." Elena stated simply and she heard Caroline let out a startled gasp.

"Oh sweetie! Is he okay?" She asked concerned.

Elena sniffled and smiled a tiny bit. She nodded against Caroline's shoulder and responded. "Yeah, in fact he's better than okay. We finally talked about what happened with our parents and everything is now out in the open. I dropped him off at a treatment center in Washington this morning. He seems really committed to getting help for his addiction."

"That's great Elena!" Caroline said, happy to hear the good news.

"I know, it's amazing. I'm just- I'm so mad at myself that I took this long to face him. All these years I could've been helping him earlier and I was just too much of a coward to do so." Hearing herself say those words reminded her of the argument she had just an hour ago with someone in particular.

"You're not a coward Elena." Caroline said soothingly.

"Yes I am. Everyone thinks so."

"What do you mean?"

"I had this huge fight with Damon today." Elena sighed, getting ready to relive the whole situation with Damon. "The day I got the call from Aunt Jenna was the day of this big meeting we had prepared for with these important manufacturers. But after I got the call it completely slipped my mind and I forgot all about the meeting. I didn't even remember it till two days ago."

"Well that's understandable; you were worried about your brother."

"Damon doesn't seem to understand. I went back to explain it to him this afternoon and he just jumped down my throat. He called me selfish and a coward." Elena grabbed a tissue to wipe her runny nose and wiped the tears with her hand.

"Damon is an ass. He has no idea what he's talking about." Caroline said, trying her best to make her friend feel better.

"Yeah well I also kind of quit."

"Kind of?" Caroline questioned.

"Well I said trying to help him was a stupid mistake and then stormed out so I'm guessing he took that as my resignation but I can't do that to Stefan. It was just the heat of the moment." Elena explained.

"You're a good friend Elena, if you're willing to put up with Damon for Stefan's sake." Caroline said, rubbing Elena's back as she turned on the TV to distract Elena.

Elena sighed, thankful she's made a good friend like Caroline.

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**A/N: I'm back! Sorry for the long wait for this chapter, I just got back from my trip yesterday and I was too tired to update! So this chater was a little tense, waht did you guys think? How did you take the fight? Let me know your thoughts!**

**xoxo, Laura**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: I do not own Vampire Diaries.**

**This story has now reached over 70 followers! Thank you all so much for your support, it keeps me motivated:) I have to say this chapter is nice and long and definitley another favourite of mine;)**

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The elevator dinged and Stefan stepped off onto the eighteenth floor of the Salvatore Empire headquarters. He had gotten back from Europe late the night before and although he was exhausted he was happy to say that the overseas investors seemed a little happier with the Empire now that he had visited and talked to them personally.

This small success was enough to make him feel a little better and like they were heading in the right direction.

He walked into his office happy to be back in the city. His mood dimmed slightly when he saw the paperwork waiting to be filled out on his desk.

It was almost nine o'clock and Stefan was a little surprised as he noticed Elena hadn't come in to greet him like usual. Instead, he was welcomed back by a stern looking Damon.

"Brother." Was all he said before he came in and sat down.

"Morning, Damon. Hey, do you know where Elena is? Is she taking the morning off?" Stefan asked looking up from his papers.

"Morning off, week off, forever off. What's the difference?" Damon said, depleting the question.

Stefan's eyes narrowed as he stared at his brother in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm pretty sure she quit." Damon said, taking a pen from the desk and twirling it between his fingers.

"What do you mean you're 'pretty sure she quit'?" Stefan said, glaring at his brother. "What did you do?"

"What did I do?" Damon asked in disbelief. "I didn't do anything. She was the one who helped me prepare a duel presentation for our most important manufacturers and then bailed the day of to go on a date. With the enemy's cousin no less!"

"What are you talking about? You had a meeting with the manufacturers?"

"Yes! A meeting I worked with Elena on. That we practiced and prepared for together only for her to ditch to go on a date with Mason Lockwood."

"What happened in the meeting?" Stefan asked, dealing with one thing at a time.

"I bombed it. I wasn't prepared to do it on my own and I completely screwed it up, I looked like an idiot in there!" Damon yelled, his frustration growing once again.

"I'm sure we can fix it." Stefan said, refusing to accept the fact that they could've just lost a key component to their company. "And I hardly believe Elena would ditch work to go on a date. Is that what she told you?"

"No she didn't have to tell me. Lockwood came over after the meeting to hand back her jacket she left with him. She didn't even show up to work until yesterday afternoon trying to act all naïve and innocent."

"No Damon you probably misunderstood the situation. I refuse to believe that Elena would throw away all the effort you two put into that presentation for a guy. What did she say when she came in yesterday?"

Damon scoffed at the idea that he was wrong. He knew what happened, he wasn't stupid.

"I told her that I knew why she missed the meeting and she tried to tell me it wasn't a big deal. I told her I was wrong to think she was actually a professional and she stormed out." Damon said, not going into much detail.

"Is that all you said?" Stefan asked his brother skeptically.

"Yes." Damon told a little white lie. Leaving out most of the hurtful comments he made to her.

"I have to sign these papers. I'll call Elena later and try to sort things out."

"Why even bother Stefan? Dealing with her is a waste of time especially if she's not even remotely interested in helping the company."

Stefan shook his head at his brothers attitude. "I have work to do Damon."

Damon stormed out of the office and back to his own to do his own work fuming at his brother's response.

It's around four o'clock and Stefan had come into Damon's office for his signature on one of the files he was working on.

Bonnie poked her head through the door. "Call for you guys on line 2. It's Mr. Yorke." She said, referring to the company lawyer.

Damon nodded and out the speaker on. "What's going on, Tom?" Damon asked, cutting straight to the point, he wasn't in the mood to play nice with anyone today.

"I don't know how you did it but you did! Damon, I have to say I had my doubts just like a lot of people but boy did you and your brother prove me wrong."

Damon and Stefan's heads snapped towards each other in confusion.

"What are you talking about, Tom?" Stefan said, announcing his presence.

"Stefan, you're here too, great!" Tom's excited voice sounded through the speaker.

"Now I can tell you both good pieces of news. Stefan, the investors you went to visit in Europe have all called or sent faxes confirming their alliance with the Empire. Great job over there, kid. Damon, I just got off the phone with the different manufacturer's lawyers, they're all agreed to sign on for a contract for at least the next year. They're willing to give you guys a chance before they make their final decision. I have to say you guys did well." He said before the boys heard a beep signaling the call had ended.

Stefan and Damon just looked at each other before breaking into smiles. They couldn't believe what they just heard. Finally, things were beginning to go their way.

After a moments celebration they're silent as they take in the good news.

"So I guess you did pretty well on your own after all." Stefan said, sitting down in on of the chairs.

Damon sighed, thinking about the meeting. He had been so sure he had bombed it; he had doubted himself so much and taken it out on Elena.

"I'm guessing there was more to it then what you told me and I'm also guessing that you owe Elena an apology, Damon." Stefan said calmly.

Damon just looked at his brother, knowing he was right. He had been a real jackass to Elena, taking most of his anger about the meeting out on her. She at least deserved to have him hear her out.

"Fine. I'll go talk to her." Damon said grabbing his jacket before leaving the room. Only to come back in later to grab the black blazer that had been thrown across his chair for the past four days.

It's close to five when Damon parks outside Elena's apartment building. He takes long strides up to the front door and he rings the buzzer to her apartment. "Hello?" He heard Elena's familiar soft voice answer.

"It's me. Want to let me in?" He said, trying to keep his cool. He had no idea if coming here was a good idea or not but he knew if he didn't Stefan would only bug him more and more.

"What are you doing here?" She said, not yet opening the door.

"We need to talk." He said, slightly harsh but was relieved when he heard the buzzer sound and opened the door.

He took the elevator up to her floor and knocked lightly twice on her door.

Elena groaned as she got off the line with Damon after having buzzed him in. She recognized his voice instantly and was surprised to find him here. She looked down at her choice of outfit: a pair of sweats with her favorite Yale sweater. Her hair was in a messy bun and she barely had any make up on. It was just one of those days and she wasn't going to bother to try and fix her appearance for Damon. With any luck he would be leaving in just a few minutes.

She heard his knock on the door and went to answer it. There he stood on the other side of the door- dressed in his usual work attire which consisted of black dress pants and a button down shirt complete with a jacket. She could see he was holding something over his shoulder but didn't bother to see what it was.

"What do you want? Think of some other lovely things to call me?" Elena said crossing her arms over her chest.

In usual Damon fashion, he just invited himself in, walking past her into her make shift living room.

"I was angry that day." He explained, turning back around to face her.

"Is that your idea of an apology?" Elena asked bemused as she stared at him.

He looked at her in disbelief. "Apology? Why should I be apologizing? You're the one who ditched the meeting to sleep with the enemy." Damon scoffed out.

"Sleep with the enemy? What are you talking about?" Elena asked confused. It was then that Damon revealed what he was holding behind his back. He brought the black blazer around to his front and threw it gently to her.

She caught it in both hands as she realized what it was. She didn't even realize she had forgotten it.

"Your boyfriend was sweet enough to bring it back to the office for you after your little rendezvous that day. Mason Lockwood. Nephew of Richard Lockwood- you know the guy trying to bring us down." Damon bit out angrily.

Elena stared at the jacket, realizing what had happened. Damon thought he knew the reason behind her disappearance but it got it wrong. He had no clue what had been going on with her.

And she was also surprised by this revelation about Mason.

"I had no idea he was a Lockwood. And even if I did, what does it matter? He has nothing to do with Lockwood Inc."

"Oh don't even bother trying to defend your little boyfriend. I bet he knew exactly what he was doing. Batting his eyes at you to distract you and get you away from the meeting. Really Elena, I'm, a little disappointed in you." As he was saying this, even he knew it sounded outrageous. There was no way Mason would've known of the meetings but he was angry. And he _really_ didn't like Mason.

Elena just stared at Damon. Angry that he had come into her home, accused her of sleeping with the enemy when he didn't even know half of the true story.

"I was with Mason that day." She admitted, angry to see a smug look on Damon's face at his being correct. "We went out for a breakfast date. Forty-five minutes into the date I got a call from my aunt saying that my little brother had overdosed." As she said this, the smug angry look fell from Damon's face as he listened to her words and watched as tears grew in her eyes.

"I caught the first plane I could to Mystic Falls. I'm sorry if it was 'selfish' of me to go make sure my little brother was okay and I'm sorry that I missed that big important meeting but I needed to be there for him. If anybody could understand that I thought it would be you, you're not the only one who's disappointed." Elena said, wiping the stray tear that had fallen.

Damon was astounded with the information he had just received. He had completely jumped to the wrong conclusions and he felt ashamed of himself. She had been dealing with a family crisis and he didn't make it any easier on her by calling her names and yelling at her. He knew that he definitely owed her an apology now and had to make this up to her.

"Is he okay?" Was all that he could say for now, as he tried to piece together a decent apology in his mind.

She looked away from him and nodded. "He was admitted to a treatment center yesterday morning." Elena answered quietly.

"I'm a jackass." Was how he decided to begin his apology. She looked at him and nodded her agreement. He took it as a sign to keep going. "I saw Mason and I jumped to conclusions and had no right to say the things that I said to you. I'm sorry Elena." He said softly, trying to get her to look him in the eyes.

She looked at him through watery eyes. She had never heard him sound so genuine before and the look in his eyes kept her captivated. "You are a jackass."

He nodded and kept looking at her. She held his gaze before sighing and deciding to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"Okay, thanks. I'm sure you have lots to do so…" she said, giving him the not so subtle hint to leave.

He sighed at her response but took his cue anyway.

Damon left her apartment feeling even worse than he already did. He felt like the most insensitive person in the world after finding out about her brother and thinking back to how he treated her. Though he apologized he still did not feel any better about his actions.

He decided he wasn't going to leave it like that. He set out on a mission.

Elena heard knocking on her door once again and figured it was Caroline coming back to check on her. For the past hour she had been going over her and Damon's exchange in her head.

She was touched by Damon's sincere apology but she still couldn't get how he treated her out of her head. She was still hurt by his words.

She opened the door and was surprised by the person on the other side. There stood Damon with a pizza box in one hand and a bottle of tequila in the other.

She looked at him bewildered at the sight. "What are you doing back here?" She asked shaking her head slightly at him.

He held up the two items in his hands and shrugged. "I owe you. May I please come in again?" He said, adopting a puppy dog pout on his lips.

"My not wanting you here didn't stop you before, why should it stop you now." Elena muttered, stepping aside to let him in. He walked through and she closed the door behind him.

He slid off his jacket and threw off his shoes. He set the alcohol and pizza down on the coffee table and went in search of the kitchen. Of course, with her small apartment it wasn't that hard to find and he came back a moment later with two plates and shot gasses in hand.

He sat down on the couch, opened the box to help the pizza cool down and poured out the tequila into the two small glasses.

He looked up at her expectantly and waited to watch her response. She looked at him, seeing what looked like hope in his eyes and exhaled. Slowly, she made her way over to sit next to him on the couch.

She took the plate off the table as he did the same and they began to eat in silence.

After they finished, Elena downed the first shot. She saw Damon raise his eyebrows. She looked at him and shrugged in response, watching as he followed her lead and proceeded to fill up the glasses a second time.

"Why did you come back?" She asked after he set the bottle down.

He looked at her for a second before downing the second shot.

"Because you're still mad at me."

"Why does it matter if I'm mad at you or not?" She asked,

Damon hesitated for a second. What did it matter if she liked him or not? He knew the reason though.

"Because I had thought we were actually becoming friends before this whole thing. Friends shouldn't hate each other." He explained simply.

"You know what friends should do? Trust each other. Trust that they wouldn't just leave you hanging for no good reason. _Friends_ should also give their other friends a chance to explain before calling them selfish and cowardly." She said, taking her second shot.

"I don't have a lot of close friends so I'm still working on my etiquette." He admitted, happy to see that he pulled a tiny smile from her at that. "You're right, I should've given you a chance to explain but like we established before- I'm a jackass. I want to make that up to you." Damon said softly.

"Pizza and shots are a good way to start." Elena nodded, stealing the tequila bottle from his side and pouring out more liquid.

They turned on the TV and settled into a comfortable silence. After a few minutes of channel flipping Damon found a Saw marathon on some movie channel and looked at Elena for her approval. She grimaced at the gore currently being displayed on the screen but nodded anyway.

"Okay how can you watch this without flinching?" Elena asked, disgusted as the image showing. "This is disgusting who comes up with this stuff?"

"Insane people who are one step away from being serial killers themselves." Damon smiled, turning the TV off to make her feel better.

"Saw is actually a pretty ingenious storyline if you think about it." He said, defending his choice.

"Oh completely, threatening people into killing themselves. Genius stuff." Elena said sarcastically.

"What kind of movies do you like then?" Damon said, looking at her with a smile on his face. "Oh why don't I go see for myself?" Damon got up from his seat on the couch and went over to where her DVD collection was set up.

"Yup just what I thought. Love Actually…. How to lose a guy in 10 days…" Damon paused to turn to look at her. "Legally Blonde? Really Elena?" He joked, laughing as she made an affronted face.

"Hey those are good movies! Especially compared to these gory stories!" Elena ended her argument by sticking her tongue out at Damon.

"And you call yourself mature." He made a funny face at her before resuming his seat next to her on the couch albeit a little closer than before.

Elena lost the smile from her face as she moved to ask about a more serious matter. "So have you heard from the manufacturers yet?"

Elena was a little apprehensive about approaching this subject particularly because she and Damon were just starting to get comfortable around each other again but she wanted to know if she really did screw it up for him.

"I got a call from Tom Yorke a couple hours ago; they all agreed to give us a chance. They've given us a renewal for the next year and we'll take it from there." Damon said, feeling bad once more for telling her the company lost them because of her.

He was surprised when she responded to him with a big smile. "You shouldn't doubt yourself Damon. You have good instincts when it comes to business. And you can charm anybody." Elena said, thinking back to how he said he made a fool of himself.

Damon looked at her at these compliments and grinned smugly at her. "You think I'm charming?" He said, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

She saw the look on his face and rolled her eyes, giving him a playful push. He proceeded by tickling her and she giggled loudly, starting to feel the affects of the tequila set in as she lost her balance on the side of the couch.

He caught her around the waist before she fell to the floor and she rested her hands on his shoulders to help steady herself.

Elena froze as she realized the position they were in and how close they were. She was halfway off the couch with her hands on his shoulders. Damon was hovering over her slightly with one hand wrapped tightly around her waist and the other on the floor supporting their weight; their faces were just inches apart. She could see his eyes flicker down to her lips and realized she was doing the same.

Damon pulled her back so she was resting against the arm of the couch and released her from his grasp. She in turn let go of him and they settled back into their former comfortable conditions in an awkward silence.

Elena reached forward for another slice of pizza. She needed something to do in the silence. He did the same except aiming for the tequila.

She watched him take a shot and started giggling for no reason. He looked at her bewildered for a second before smiling. The awkwardness was over. "You really are a lightweight aren't you?"

She nodded with a silly smile on her face. "Eat; you don't want to be hungover at work tomorrow morning."

She smiled at his words and continued to munch on the food in her hand.

"So, what's your little brother like?" Damon risked asking, wanting to get to know her better.

Elena sobered up a little at this question and looked down at the luke warm pizza slice in her hands. "We actually aren't that close. We haven't really talked to each other in a couple years." Elena decided if she and Damon were going to be friends, they should be willing to share things with each other. So she elaborated. "After my parents died, he sort of spun out of control- drinking, drugs, cutting class, getting in trouble with the police… the other day was the first time we really addressed what happened." She sighed before turning her head to glance out the window. "Hopefully now we can really get to know each other again."

She turned to face Damon once again, to see him staring softly at her. After a minute she started getting fidgety under his intense gaze so she cleared her throat and continued the questions.

"So what about you?

Damon gave her an uninterested shrug. "What about me?"

Elena rolled her eyes at his deflective comment and sighed. "Come on Damon, you want to be friends? Friends talk about each others lives."

"You know the details. Stefan and I don't have the greatest relationship and my father and I hated one another."

"What about your mom?" Elena questioned softly. "I know she passed away when you were younger but how was your relationship with her?"

Damon's eye's lost focus at the mention of his mother- his thoughts immediately flitting through his favorite memories of his time with his mother.

"My mom… she was amazing. We had a big house just outside of town in a rich neighborhood that my dad loved the status of and because of that I didn't have too many friends since there wasn't a lot of kids there- I never really got along with any of the kids at my private school either- bunch of stuck up snobs. So she was really the only friend I had when I was a kid, she was the only one there for me. Her and Stefan." Elena smiled softly at him, silently offering encouragement as he opened up to her. "She taught me to cook." He offered up, glancing at Elena from the corner of his eye.

Elena raised an eyebrow at him. "You know how to cook?"

Damon scoffed playfully turning his head to look right at her. "Oh yeah, and I'm damn good at it too. In fact, before this whole thing happened with the Empire I was managing a little café just outside the city. It belongs to Ric's grandmother and after her husband passed away she needed help taking care of it. I needed a job so it was a good match."

Damon smiled a little thinking about his old job and looked over to see Elena smiling lightly while shaking her head. She was looking at him like he had grown a second head. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Its just- when I first met you I would have never expected you to be involved and like something like that." She kept looking at him and took a risk to tiptoe the line. "Why do you want people to see you like this Damon? Why don't you let people see the good in you?"

"Because when people see good, they expect good Elena. People raise their expectations too high and I'm tired of being a disappointment." Damon admitted, facing the black screen of the television letting the truth of his words- ones he had never admitted out loud before- sink in for both of them.

Elena rested her head on his shoulder, offering him as much comfort as she could. "Damon, you don't give yourself enough credit." It was Elena's turn to let her words sink in. Damon couldn't believe the girl beside him. He had been horrible to her, based on assumptions and yet here she was. Not only had she forgiven him but she was listening to him, offering him comfort and implying that she herself believed in him.

She was truly extraordinary.

He smiled as he thought of her resting against his body and raised his arm to put around her and pulled her closer. They sat there in comfortable silence while letting the music of the city streets lull them into a peaceful sleep.

* * *

**A/N: Like I said, this is probably one of my top three chapters in this story. I hope you guys liked it as much as I do! Let me know what you think about Damon's apology? I wasn't to sure if his character was believable or not in this one but regardless...**

**Once more, thank you thank you thank you to all those who not only follow/favourite this story but also review. I really like hearing what you guys think!**

**follow me on tumblr quietlydaydreaming . tumblr . com**

**xoxo, Laura**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: I do not own Vampire Diaries.**

* * *

"Thank you. Thank you very much, you won't regret it." Stefan said happily into the phone before hanging up the phone and nodding his head at Damon. In turn, Damon punched his fist into the air before taking a seat in front of his brother.

Stefan had just gotten off the phone with one of their principle distributors who, having heard that the manufacturers were still on board, agreed to continue to support the Salvatore Empire.

"This is it, Damon. We are finally getting everything under control. We are almost there, I can feel it." Stefan exclaimed ecstatically.

Damon smiled at his little brother's enthusiasm and leaned back in his seat. "I say we go out and celebrate tonight. Let's leave the office early for once, go grab drinks."

Stefan imitated Damon's actions and smiled lightly. "Actually I already have plans with Caroline tonight. We're going out for dinner at seven thirty."

Damon smirked at his brother. "Well then I'll find someone else to go with. You two kids have fun now." He said getting up to leave the room. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"Why don't you ask Elena, I'm sure she'll be excited with the news."

Damon smiled secretly to himself as he neared the doorway. "Yeah, maybe I will."

Elena frowned as she slipped on her grey ruffled dress and looked at her appearance in the mirror. Damon had left about an hour ago; they had both woken up to the sound of honking from the street below.

Elena blushed lightly as she remembered the intimate position they had been in. Sometime during the night, they had slipped into fully lying down on the couch, Damon had both his arms wrapped around her and she had nestled into a comfortable position on his chest. Her forehead resting against his cheek, hands gently on his toned chest and her legs tangled with his.

As awkward as it was when they were both fully alert- it wasn't awkward at all. Although, they were both stuttering like idiots trying to wrap their head around the night. Damon made an exit after Elena had clumsily knocked over what little tequila was left in the large bottle.

She didn't know what last night was. Yes, they had really opened up to each other but what did that mean. Everything that happened last night was in the name of friendship was it not? They talked about their family and friends and where they were in life but that's what friends did right.

But friends didn't fall asleep cuddling on the couch with each other. And what was with that almost kiss? At least, she thought that's what it was…

Elena wasn't too sure about where they stood anymore. But she was sure that sure was developing strong feelings for Damon Salvatore. Strong feelings, very fast.

_I'm screwed._ She thought to herself as she threw the things she would need for the day into her small clutch before heading out the door.

On her way to work her thoughts drifted over to Mason. He had tried calling her the other day but she ignored it. Before getting the call from aunt Jenna she had been having a plesasant time with Mason. He seemed like a decent guy and he was definitely good looking but there was no spark. She didn't feel that insane attraction towards him. She didn't feel excited to be around him. Not like when she was with-… Short story: she thought they were better off as friends.

Elena sighed as she realized she would have to break up with him before anything was even started. From the amount of phone calls she received from him and the text messages he's sent- it's obvious he thought their date went extraordinarily well. Elena had never been good at rejecting guys. In the past whenever something like this came up, she felt she always came off harsh and unkind when really all she was trying to do was let the guy down gently.

Elena decided she would save this issue for another day, she wouldn't let a guy bring down her day- after all, and the empire was starting to find its footing again.

The elevator dinged as Elena walked out and she waved a hello to Bonnie. "How are you today Bonnie?"

"I'm great, thanks. How are you Elena?" Bonnie asked with an unusually huge smile planted on her face.

"I'm good but you seem better than great." Elena laughed a little. "What's got you so happy?"

Bonnie blushed a little embarrassed at being caught. "Actually, my boyfriend asked me to move in with him. So I'm a little excited."

Elena smiled at her happiness. "That's great Bonnie, that's a big step you know."

"I know." Bonnie smiled.

It was at that moment that Damon came out of the office. Elena's smiled faded a little as he caught her eyes. They both stood still looking at each other before citing good morning.

Elena cleared her throat and pointed to the coffee she had set down on Bonnie's Desk.

"Umm, I brought coffee if you wanted some." Elena said, a little awkwardly.

Damon smiled lightly at her obvious nervousness and took his rightful coffee from the set and tipped his head to her. "The manufacturers have all agreed to stay on board for a little while longer."

Elena was relieved as Damon moved on to a safe topic- work. "Really? That's so great." She said, her smile growing once more. "So what do we do now?"

"Good question." Stefan interjected coming out of his office. "We need to go over what our profits are right now. How well the products are selling and also see how the public is feeling about Salvatore Empire. Damon, our accounting department is sending up the latest books for you and I to go over any minute now. Elena I was wondering if you could go down to the marketing department and work with them to create a poll for our customers for their opinions on the company?" Stefan asked, in full boss mode.

"Yes sir." Elena fake saluted her friend and handed him his coffee. She was happy to get away from Damon. Not that she wasn't happy to see him; she was just very confused on how to react regarding last night.

Damon could see that Elena was acting differently around him and that made him falter slightly. On his way to the office this morning, his mind couldn't stop thinking about Elena. He had been trying to deny his attraction to her for a while but after talking and sharing things with her last night he couldn't pinpoint why, anymore.

He had come into the office this morning excited to see her but maybe he was imagining things. She seemed uncomfortable around him so maybe she didn't want the same thing as he did. And the last thing he wanted to do was put himself out there only to get rejected.

Elena closed the door gently behind her. She had spent the last two hours in the marketing department working with a small group of people coming up with a survey for their customers to take. She hadn't gotten the warmest welcome from them.

She wasn't taking it personally though. She realized that if she was in the same position as them- worrying about the state of their careers- she wouldn't be too enthusiastic to work either. It had taken much longer than she thought it would because nobody was putting forth many ideas for it.

She determined that this company was in definite need of a morale booster and just as she was walking through the halls- an idea came to her. One that she would need a little help with.

Elena had been in Damon's office for about twenty minutes when she heard a knock on the door. "Come in."

A blonde head poked through the door. There was Caroline with a bright smile on her face. "You called?"

"Hey, thanks for coming so soon." Elena greeted and hugged Caroline.

"Anytime, you said it was urgent and I wasn't busy so…" Caroline said before looking back out the slightly opened door. "Is Stefan around?" She asked, primping her hair incase he appears.

Elena smiled at her friend knowingly before responding. "He and Damon are in his office with the accountants going over the books. They'll probably be a while. But don't worry I'll make sure he's done in time for your date." Elena said, moving to close the door from distractions.

"I'm so excited Elena! Did he say where he's taking me? He won't tell, he wants to make it a surprise." Caroline pouted before taking a seat.

"Then I guess you'll find out in a few hours." Elena suggested playfully.

"I guess so. Anyways, what did you need help with?" Caroline asked.

"Well, I'm in need of your expertise actually. I was hoping you could help me organize a company party. The employees here are in desperate need of a lighthearted affair so they can see that the empire is still going strong." Elena said, eyeing her friend hopefully.

Caroline let loose a giant smile at the request. "You called the right person."

The girls spent the next few hours coming up with ideas for the company party. From the food to the music, Caroline really knew what she was doing.

When they decided to call it a day, they grew to talk about more personal matters.

"So things seem to be going pretty well with you and Stefan?" Elena mentioned, leaning back in Damon's chair. She was almost distracted by the intoxicating, familiar scent that overcame her. The chair smelled just like him, and she loved that smell. The perfect mix of his natural scent and cologne.

"He's amazing Elena. I can't believe how lucky I am. I'm so happy when I'm around him- not even when I'm around him, just thinking about him gets me so happy. Before, I always went for the wrong guy but now I'm with Stefan and everything is going perfect… and- Elena, I think he's the one." Caroline smiled shyly at her confession. "I know, its only been about a month but we talk all the time and even if he's been here in the office for hours on end he'll still make time to hang out with me."

Elena smiled at her closest girlfriend. Although she hadn't known Caroline for long they have quickly become really close. Elena can't even imagine how different her first weeks in the city would've been if Caroline hadn't been there. She was extremely happy for Caroline, especially because she and Stefan were so good together. Where Caroline was uptight, Stefan was calm, where Stefan was a little shy, Caroline was outgoing. They seemed to balance each other out perfectly and Elena has definitely noticed how Stefan gets when Caroline Forbes is mentioned.

"That's amazing Care, I'm so happy for you both!" Elena said, resting her chin on her hand.

"Maybe… what if he doesn't feel the same way? What if we're too different Elena?" Once again Caroline's insecurities were coming through. This is the thing that bugged Elena about Caroline: she never gave herself enough credit. Although she came off confident and strong, sometimes she never can see how amazing she is.

"Caroline, I've known Stefan for a while now and trust me when I say I have never seen him so happy. You light up his world Caroline." Elena said truthfully.

"It's getting late, Damon. I have to leave soon and go get ready for my dinner. Do you mind if we finish brainstorming tomorrow?" Stefan said, slipping a few papers into his briefcase.

"Look at you brother, leaving work unfinished for a date. I hardly even recognize you." Damon teased, giving his brother a smirk.

Stefan paused before smiling up at his big brother. "She makes me happy Damon. I know it's only been a few weeks… but she makes me happy."

Damon took in the look upon his brother's face and his smirk turned into a genuine smile. "That's good to hear little brother."

"Knock, knock." The two Salvatore men turned their heads to look towards the door. A beautiful blonde woman was standing there, one hand on her hip the other on the door frame. Dressed in a sexy black business suit, she wore a smirk on her face as she faced the two brothers.

"Can we help you?" Damon said, in his usual sardonic tone though he couldn't deny the good looking appearance of this woman before him.

"My name is Katherine Pierce… and I have a proposition for you boys."

* * *

**A/N: How do you like them apples? Haha, please let me know what you guys think about this new addition, some of you are probably going to hate me... I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I will try to update within the next few days!**

**xoxo, Laura**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: I do not own Vampire Diaries. Also just to explain, there is no strong resemblence between Elena and Katherine. I used the description of Elena from the book series as a basis for Katherine's appearance. Just incase anybody was wondering.**

* * *

"I'm so sorry I'm late Care." Stefan rushed, leaning down to press a soft kiss to her temple. She looked up and smiled at him.

"Don't worry about it, I'm just glad you're here now." She said sweetly as he sat down across from her. "Did something happen at the office?"

Stefan nodded and reminesced about what had just happened. The arrival of Miss Katherine Pierce definitely wasn't expected. And she definitely brought her cards to the table- that proposal of hers was something to think about.

**Earlier**

"What kind of proposition?" Damon asked, turning to fully face the blonde, arms folded over his chest. He was already suspicious of this new woman, coming in here like she owned the place. He was already annoyed with the cockyness and smug aura emmitting from the stranger. Only he could pull it off well.

"I'm on my way up in a new up and coming Design Company. _Petrova, _maybe you've heard of it? Anyways, with every good product, we need a good name to go along with it. I need to prove to my bosses that I can bring the big guns and you need to show that the Salvatore Empire is still the best out there." Katherine sauntered in and sat down slowly in one of the chairs facing the desk. Crossing her legs and resting her manicured hands on her bare knee, she looked between the brothers. "My proposal, is that we work together to bring the next big 'it' thing to society. You help Petrova come up with the product, we bring it to life and the Salvatore Empire brings it to the people. It's a win-win situation. You'd be stupid not to accept boys."

Damon and Stefan looked at each other, unsure of what to make of this woman coming in here and offering them this.

"Well, you're proposal is very intriguing, if you don't mind giving us some time to think it over a little bit, discuss it with a few other people in the company and what not. Do you have a card Miss Pierce?" Stefan asked, taking the reins.

"Every good business person does. " She smirked, before opening her small clutch and pulling out a glossy little business card, slapping it on the desk. "I applaud your thinking skills, trying to act all responsible and professional, but don't take too long boys. This is the business world, if you don't grab it while you have the chance I may take my offer elsewhere."

They both watched as she stood up and walked out of the room. Just before exiting, she turned her head- flashing both brothers a small smirk over her shoulder.

* * *

Elena tapped her fingers nervously on the table in front of her. She was currently sitting in the café where she had her first and only date with Mason. She had finally returned his call last night and asked if they could meet up. Today, she was going to tell him that he was a great guy, but she thought they were better off as friends.

She jolted softly as she heard the bell ring through the small building as the door opened. She looked up and once again caught his eye and saw him smile brightly at her.

"Hey, I'm so happy you called." Mason said, coming up to the table. He paused for a second before sitting down, Elena came to the conclusion that he was waiting for her to stand up and give him a hug and immediately felt bad that she didn't catch on at first but also realizing that wouldn't help her in breaking things off with him.

_Oh my goodness, it's awkward already._

"Yeah, I'm sorry it took so long. I've been busy with my brother and work lately."

"Don't worry about it, I understand." Mason smiled and reached out and grasped Elena's hand that was still resting on the table, though it had stopped its nervous tapping.

Elena looked down at the hands and took a deep breath preparing her little thought up speech in her head. As gently and slowly as she could she pulled her hand out from underneath his, placing them in her own lap.

"Look Mason, I called you here because I wanted to talk to you about something." Elena started off. "I had a really great time with you the other day. You seem like a really sweet guy."

"I had a great time too. I'm looking forward to having many more great times with you Elena." Mason continued to smile at her, not picking up on her hesitance.

"Mason, I'm sorry. I like you… as a friend." Elena stammered out, watching his reaction.

As the words came out of her mouth, the smile slipped off his face. His once sweet features became hard and his lips pulled down into a frown. He laughed bitterly, before pulling his hand off the table and sitting up straighter.

"I see how it is." Mason scoffed out.

"Please, don't hate me. You're a really great guy but-"

"Oh please don't go with the whole 'it's not you it's me thing', that's just lame. Come one Elena; at least get a little creative. You know what I don't need this. I'm out of here. Nice knowing you." Mason said before standing up and storming out of the small café.

Elena looked around and saw that people had noticed their little discrepancy and turned red from embarrassment. She couldn't believe how badly he reacted. After all, they had only been out on one date, they had only met twice before; how could he be so upset.

"I wonder what he'd be like if we had actually been a legitimate couple." She muttered to herself quietly, making her way to the exit.

* * *

Damon whistled as he rode the elevator up to their floor. It was a new day: the company was doing well, they had a decent proposal to think about, and he would get to spend more time with Elena.

_Speak of the devil._ Oh how that phrase so did not suit the person before him. His mind said as he took in the image of Elena in her usual morning spot: coffee in hand, talking to Bonnie with a smile on her face.

"Good morning ladies. How are you this fine day?" He said, coming to stand next to Elena, taking his rightful drink out of her hands. Elena turned and let out a small smile for him. Definitely a welcome change from how she was yesterday.

"Good thank you Mr. Salvatore." Bonnie responded as politely as she could to the man who had just recently started treating her like an actual human being. Though Bonnie could tell he hadn't heard a word she said: both his eyes and ears were all for Elena.

"Someone's in a chipper mood this morning, Damon." Elena noted, still gazing into the sharp blue eyes.

"What can I say? Beautiful morning, beautiful lady right here in front of me. I feel like its going to be a good day." Damon smirked lightly

The familiar ding of the elevator was heard right before the also familiar giggle of Caroline Forbes. Together, she and Stefan stepped out, hand- in-hand and greeted Elena and Damon.

"Well look at you two love-birds. Glad to see your date has continued well until the morning brother." Damon teased playfully, earning himself a light smack in the stomach from Elena.

"Wouldn't you like to know." Caroline winked at the two before giggling once more.

"Caroline explained your idea to me during dinner last night Elena, I think it's just what we all need. Whatever you need to make it happen, you've got it." Stefan said, nodding toward his old friend.

"What are you guys talking about?" Damon said, not aware as to what was happening.

"Caroline and I came up with the idea to have a company party as a way to boost the morale among the employees." Elena explained.

"Sounds like fun. Good idea, 'Lena." Damon complimented.

"So, we should get started, boys how does Saturday evening sound for the party? Good? Great!" Caroline said, taking Elena by the hand, pepped to plan. "Damon, just FYI, we'll be taking over your office for the time being. Thanks." Just before leaving the boys, Caroline leaned over to press a kiss to Stefan's cheek.

Elena gave both brothers a small smile over her shoulder before willingly letting Caroline pull her into the office.

Caroline let Elena's arm loose as soon as the door was shut and reached into her oversized tote bag and pulled out a bright purple binder. She tossed her curly blonde strands over her shoulder and took a seat in Damon's large leather chair.

"Okay, so we need to decide on a theme, a venue, and the menu. Along with a million other little things but those are the three most important." Caroline explained, letting out her professional side.

"Okay, so we don't need an elaborate theme- how about just semi-formal?" Elena suggested. "People will be able to dress up and let loose a little bit and not be put out by the need to be all fancy."

"Perfect. So that's settled, now, how about food?"

"Lets not make this a sit down dinner type thing- just music and dancing and appetizers will be available throughout the night." Elena decided.

Caroline looked up at her friend and giggled. "I like a client who knows what they want. So where are we going to have this shindig? I was thinking next-door in the art gallery. It's spacious and close so people don't have to go out of their way to enjoy the night." Caroline suggested. "After all, the goal is to make people believe in us by showing them a good time not by having them go all out."

"I think this is really starting to come together." Elena smiled with her enthusiasm.

"Slow down there, there is still so much to work out." Caroline sighed playfully, checking things off her list.

The girls spent hours in the office, planning every detail needed and working out a reasonable budget. Luckily, Caroline was good friends with the head of a catering company she hired for a lot of her parties so they were able to get a discount for the service.

Once all the t's were crossed and they had dotted the I's: Caroline was due for lunch with her mom. Elena had written up a rough draft of the invitation she was planning to email out to the employees but before she did she thought it would be best to go over the plans with the bosses.

She made her way over to Stefan's office and knocked once before entering. Stepping in to the room, she noticed that Damon was the only occupant. He looked up as he heard the door click shut and let out a big smile when he saw who was there.

"Hey, you've been locked up in my office for hours, how are the plans coming?" He asked, setting some papers down.

"Great, we have everything sorted out. I just thought I should get the go ahead from you or Stefan first. Make sure you guys know what's going on." Elena said, taking a seat across from the desk.

She pulled out the papers where Caroline had written the plans down and held them in her hands going over them in her mind once more. Damon walked around the desk and she felt her heart skip a beat as he leaned down over her shoulder, taking in what was written down.

She stumbled upon her words before finally finding her voice. "So most importantly: Saturday night, music and dancing in the gallery next door, semi formal attire, starts at seven."

Damon turned his chin slightly towards her and she made the mistake of looking up. Once more they were caught in a staring contest. Elena's eyes flashed towards his lips. If she were to just move a few inches forward and stood up they would be kissing.

She could've sworn he had started to lean forward just a tiny bit more when Stefan walked into the room. They both jumped back a little bit- getting into a more appropriate position for colleagues. Stefan stopped abruptly though, realizing he had just interrupted something between them and couldn't help but let loose a little smirk while his brother and his friend tried to continue on with their forgotten conversation.

"Good-Great." Elena stuttered standing up. "So that's all settled, I'll send out the email ASAP and everything's set for Saturday. I'll see you guys later." Elena said, blushing lightly and backing out of the room.

Stefan smirked at Damon who just stood there smirking right back. "Sorry, did I interrupt something?"

"You did brother. But don't worry about it. They'll be plenty more where that came from." Damon smirked before going back to sorting the papers.

* * *

Elena did as she promised and sent the email out straight away. She had requested an RSVP so she would know exactly how many people would be attending and within just a few minutes she had received a number of replies from people who seem more or less interested in the upcoming event.

Before she knew it, five days had passed an it was the afternoon of the party. She had gone shopping with Caroline a day earlier and chosen a new gorgeous dress for the occasion. As they were shopping Caroline kept subtly hinting that she seemed to have someone in mind when she was weighing her options and she didn't bother to correct the blonde.

She was looking forward to tonight: she had a good feeling about this party and she had a good feeling about the company's future. Both Stefan and Damon have been hinting that they have a surprise in store for not only her but the rest of the employees as well. They seemed pretty eager about it so she could only assume it was good news about the company. They were planning to announce it tonight at the party hopefully it will be the thing to send the mood of the employees right over the top.

She made a quick call to Caroline- double checking that everything was taken care of before calling a cab to take her to the gallery. She was already 20 minutes late; hopefully everything else was on time.

On the drive over, she couldn't help but let her thoughts wander over to Damon. She kept picturing how he would look tonight all dressed up and was excited at the thought of seeing him.

They had continued their usual banter over the last couple of days but now there was more of a flirtation to it- needless to say it was what she most looked forward to every morning.

She was having trouble denying to herself that he may reciprocate the feelings she has to him and it has only made her bolder in her attitude towards him. She finds herself subconsciously swaying her hips a little more while walking away, hoping to have him watching her. She's taken to winking at him whenever she catches him staring at her and sadly she has become a giggling high-schooler around him.

The taxi came to a stop right outside the art gallery and after handing the driver some money, Elena stepped out. The cool night chill encircled her quickly, and she rushed her pace to hurry inside.

Damon had been here since the beginning and he was happy to see that a fair amount of employees had made the effort to get a little dolled up and come out to support the company tonight.

He had been making small talk with all kinds of different workers from different departments and they seemed pleased to be here tonight.

Damon grabbed a flute of champagne off one of the waiter's trays and took a quick gulp. He turned around and was just in time to see the person he had been waiting for make her grand entrance.

There stood Elena, who had paused at the door to take in her surroundings. _She is stunning._ He thought to himself as he took in her appearance. She had chosen a tight black cocktail dress for the occasion and her long brown locks were twisted into a side braid type style. He had to allow him self a moment to catch his breath once more. She had added a little more make-up that her everyday routine not that she needed it of course.

He set his half-full glass down and made his way over to Elena.

Elena took notice of his approach and turned to face fully towards him. Reaching her, he gently grabbed a hold of her hand and lifted it up for a soft kiss.

"Enchante, Miss Gilbert." Damon said, letting her hand fall back to her side.

"Good evening Mr. Salvatore. How are you enjoying yourself?" Elena said, smiling.

"Much better now that you are here." He flirted shamelessly and at his comment, Elena blushed and looked down to her feet. "Care for a dance?"

As much as she wanted to say yes. And oh boy, did she want to have Damon hold her close and feel his arms around her- she had responsibilities tonight and she was already late as it was.

"Raincheck? I need to go check with the caterers and make sure everything is running smoothly." Elena explained smiling hopefully at him. Damon just shook his head with a smirk on his place. He tightened his grip on her hand once more and pulled her towards the dance floor.

"Nuh uh. Everything's fine and if not, Caroline's the party planner: it's her problem." He delegated. Once they were situated on the floor, he wrapped one arm around her waist pulling her close and the other lifted up their hands, still joined, slightly.

Elena, all ready to deny him, felt the words slip through her thoughts as their body's pressed against each other.

"Just relax tonight. You've been working hard, you deserve it." He smiled gently, looking down into her eyes.

She smiled back at him in return and laughed brightly as he released her into a spin before pulling her right back, closer than before.

In the middle of their second dance, Elena noticed Stefan and Caroline sitting at one of the tables close to the dance floor and waved at them. They both waved back happily before their attention turned to each other once more.

The night was working splendidly, the brothers have had people coming up to them all night, much more open and willing to discuss work with them than they had been before and everyone seemed to be having a good time.

It was nearing the end of the night when the brothers stepped onto the small stage where the DJ has been set up and took hold of the microphone and gathered the attention of all their employees.

"Hello, everyone. We hope you are having a wonderful time tonight. I know we are." Damon stopped to let the applause die down a little. "It has been great getting to spend time you outside of the work environment. Now before I turn things over to my brother for a little announcement, I would just like to have a round of applause for the two beautiful ladies who threw this night together: Miss Caroline Forbes and Miss Elena Gilbert." Damon could see the curiosity on all the faces and could hear the whispers of the room as they started to give a loud, respectful applause. They all probably think the Salvatore's were going to announce the closing of the Empire.

"We understand the last couple of months have been a little rocky. It wasn't the best transistion but we're getting through it and we're getting back on track. There's nothing to fear about it and as a matter of fact- my brother and I are pleased to announce our new alliance with _Petrova_: together with them we will be coming up with a brand new product that will show the world that they have nothing to lose when choosing the empire." The crowd broke out into a round of relieved approval. "And while we have your attention, we also just want to thank you for standing by us during this difficult time, we know it was hard for everybody but we did it!" Stefan smiled gratefully before both brothers stepped down from the platform.

* * *

**A/N: Well as you can see, Elena is way more open to Damon now and you now see how Katherine works into the story. As expected, not a lot of people were too happy now that Katherine is here but who knows how long she'll stay;)**

**Also, just to point out, this story now has 82 follows! That makes me so happy that so many people are interested in this story:) **

**And a special thanks to those who review! It means a lot to me that you take the time to do so and also I really do love hearing what people think about what's going on and motivates me to update faster;)**

**xoxo, Laura**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: I do not own Vampire Diaries. Sorry for the slight delay between updates, I was having internet issues! Please enjoy the new chapter:)**

* * *

"Well, we want the public interested in it. It has to be big- to show that it is something everybody will want and something everybody needs." Stefan said, stating the obvious goal for the new product advertisements.

"Thanks captain for stating the obvious. Because, you know, I was looking to create a product no one will want." Damon responded sarcastically.

"Oh boys, you love to bicker don't you." Katherine interrupted with a smirk and giggle. "You two seem to have everything under control for now- keep brainstorming and keep me up to date on the plans. I have to go; I have an important lunch meeting in a half hour. Adios, boys." Katherine pulled her things and together and stepped out of the room.

It had been three weeks since the company dinner and the boys have been heavily engrossed in designing a new product. Katherine had been coming in to check on the progress every couple of days. It was going pretty well so far, they were know talking about how they were going to approach the advertising for it seeing as they had the rough outline of the product done up.

Just as she was pulling the door shut she almost ran into Elena who was heading to meet the boys.

"Oh. Hello, you must be Katherine Pierce: from Petrova, right?" Elena said, offering up and smile and a hand to shake. Katherine looked down at her hand and adopted a grimace. "Pleasure, I'm sure" She added dryly, ignoring the hand and continuing on her way out.

Elena let her hand drop to her side and turned to follow the blonde to the elevator watching her step inside.

"So lovely to meet you too. I'm so happy about the deal between Petrova and the Empire…" Elena muttered bitterly to herself. Oh well, at least she didn't have to interact with her that much.

She didn't bother knocking before entering Stefan's office this time. The boys were tossing a hackey sack back and forth while coming up with new products to introduce and both turned to smile towards Elena. One brother's smile brighter than the other's.

"How's it going you guys?" Elena smiled, eyeing Damon a little longer than necessary.

"It's going." Stefan said. "Coming up with a few new things but nothing that screams 'amazing'. We'll get there though- I have a good feeling. We just gave Katheirne the roguh outline, she seemed pretty excited about it." He smiled brightly and optimistically.

"I know you guys will. I was just going to go for a lunch run, what would you guys like?"

"Good idea, I'll come with you. Stefan, we'll continue this after lunch? The usual, right?" Damon grabbed his jacket and rushed out of the room before Stefan could object to his absence- he was excited to spend some more time with Elena after the company party, they hadn't seen much of each other since.

"Why the rush?" she laughed as he gently took hold of her hand and pulled her into the elevator.

"No reason, just a little hungry." He smiled down at her.

Damon laughed and held the door to the café open for Elena to step through.

"It's not funny. I was mortified and he would not stop dancing." Elena couldn't help but giggle along to her own story. She had just told Damon about the grade nine decade dance in which her parents had volunteered to chaperone and kept trying to teach the students dances of the sixties.

"I'm sure I would be too if my parents were trying to teach all my friends how to do the twist." To illustrate his point, Damon started showing off his dances moves right there in the middle of the shop.

She slapped his shoulder lightly and smiled widely at him-loving how open he was becoming and surprised to find how sweet and fun he was.

"So I met Katherine on her way out earlier." Elena commented, altering the atmosphere they had going slightly. It didn't escape Elena's notice of how pretty she was.

"She's a piece of work isn't she?" Damon scoffed. "Seems kind of like a bitch but oh well, as soon as we get this thing done we won't have anything more to do with her." Elena smiled slightly at his words and moved up in line to place their order.

The two sat down at the counter seats while they waited and continued their chat.

"So tell me more about you growing up." Damon said.

"Only if you do the same." Elena bargained and at his slight frown she went ahead. "I'll start and you can't laugh!" She warned. "I was a cheerleader…"

Damon turned to her in disbelief. "No way, you?!" he question then he slyly gave her a once over and shrugged. "I can believe it." He said jokingly. "Let me guess you dated the captain of the football team too?"

She laughed at his words and nodded her head. "Actually I did yeah." His eyes widened at her actual confirmation and he whistled lowly.

"Well look at you with your all-American lifestyle." He smiled, loving the fact that he was learning so much about her.

"Okay, I told you something about me now you go."

Damon sighed and shrugged once more. "There's nothing much to tell."

"Come on, there must be something. Were you on any teams?" Damon laughed loudly at this and gave her a look.

"Do you really think I was a team player in high school?"

Elena thought about this and figured he was right. It just didn't suit him. "Okay so what did you do then?"

"Honestly? A lot of stuff just to piss off my dad. Along with anything that could get me out of the house as much as possible." He gave her a somber look for a moment before smiling when he heard their order number being called.

"Come- lunch awaits." He said, giving her his hand to help her from her seat.

They made it back to the office in good time and Bonnie, Stefan, Damon and Elena all ate lunch together in a relaxed conversation in Stefan's office.

Soon the secretary's phone rang and bonnie went back to work. She buzzed over the intercom for Damon. Apparently one of the guys in the marketing department wanted to run something by him. That left just Elena and Stefan alone finishing up their food.

"I can't thank you enough Elena." Stefan commented softly. "I don't know what would've happened if you didn't come to work with us."

"Stefan, don't mention it. I'm glad I could help. And you really saved me by giving me this job."

"I'm just happy we could reconnect again. I really missed you." Stefan crumpled up his food wrapper and through it in the garbage before giving Elena a soft friendly smile.

"Likewise. Let's never not talk to each other for so long again." Elena laughed following his suit.

"And I also really have to thank you for introducing me to Caroline." He said quietly, a light blush making its way across his cheeks.

Elena grinned at him, happy to have helped two of her close friend find such happiness. "I'm really excited for you two. You both seem really happy."

"She's it for me. I think about what I want in life ten years from now… and she's the first thing that pops up." He admits.

Elena sat up a little straighter at this revelation. "Are you saying… Are you going to propose Stefan?"

He looks a little scared at the idea but smiles nonetheless.

"I've been thinking about it. I know it's a little fast but I know I love her and I don't want anything to happen to us. Aren't you supposed to just know when its right?" He asked for reassurance.

Elena could tell he was a little nervous of his feelings for Caroline. Stefan has always gone by the book, doing things the way things should be done and he knew this was odd, feeling so strongly so fast and it was obviously freaking him out a little.

Elena did the only thing she could do. "You're right Stefan. When it's right you just know. And it doesn't matter how long you two have been together or how much you've gone through. You guys love one another and that's the most important thing."

Stefan smiled in thanks and she made movement to get up and head back to work. "Hey don't tell Caroline. I want it to be a complete surprise when I finally do decide to do it."

"My lips are sealed. You can't imagine how excited I am for you guys." Elena smiled and headed to the door, pausing as she held the doorknob. "I hope one day I'll be that same position as you two are." She commented softly, smiling before leaving the room.

Stefan just smiled and muttered to thin air. "You will be. Maybe sooner than you think."

* * *

Damon refrained from groaning as he walked out of the marketing department at the end of the day. Yes, the people were being much more polite and helpful to him ever since the dinner but there was a small mix-up in one of the new print ads and it took a while to go back, find the problem and correct it.

It had been a long afternoon and he was looking forward to going home and sleeping all night. But before he could do so he had to run back up to his office and grab his things. As he stepped onto his floor, he made a bee line for his own office, noting that Bonnie had left for the day and it seems as if his brother had too. He figured Elena must've gone home already too as only silence filled the air around him.

Quickly he collected he things and turned off the office light. In the foyer, he was greeted with the sight of Elena, waiting for the elevator to make its way back up.

"I had figured you had gone home already." He said stepping up beside her.

She smiled at him in greeting and responded. "No, I had some last minute things to tie up before I could leave. I was just in Stefan's office working through them."

The elevator dinged and Damon, being the gentlemen, let her step on first before getting in himself.

"Everything okay down in marketing?" Elena asked, making conversation.

"Yeah everything's good, got the issue fixed." Damon answered absentmindedly, getting distracted as he watch Elena pulled her hair back over her shoulder as she put her jacket on.

He was transfixed with the woman before him. She was beautiful, not only in looks but she was as genuine as they came. He was not perfect by any means, he didn't believe anybody was, but boy did she come close.

They had been doing this little dance for a few weeks now, ever since the night he stayed over at her place and he was getting a little annoyed with the lack of progression. As he watched her lick her lips, he couldn't take it anymore.

"Elena…" was all he said and as she turned to look curiously at him, he grabbed her waist and pulled her forward.

Not expecting the movement, she fell into his chest and as his lips landed on hers she gasped lightly.

His arms wrapped fully around her waist, holding her tightly to him as she became aware of what exactly was going on- she slid her arms up around his neck, holding his lips against hers.

He licked her lips, begging for entrance and he took her parting her lips as permission. Their tongues battled against each other for dominance, like their stubborn selves would. Both Elena and Damon had dropped their belongings to the floor and neither registered the opening of the elevator doors.

They were both entranced with each other. This was what they had both thought about for quite a while now and now they were experiencing it.

Finally, the need for air became too much and they broke apart. Their foreheads rested against each other for a second before they realized they would need to get off the elevator unless they wanted another ride.

Elena released his neck from her embrace and Damon surrendered his hold on her hips. They stepped back from one another and moved to pick up their things.

Elena turned back to Damon and all he offered her was a smile and said. "Good night Elena." Before turning and walking out of the building.

Elena stood there stunned for a second before shaking her head and making her way home.

_What the hell just happened?_

All she could think about on the way home was that kiss. That kiss with _Damon_. It was much better than she could've possibly imagined and she could not stop remembering the feel of his arms around her, her own fingers entangled in his dark locks.

And then when they finally pulled apart, all he offered her was a 'goodnight Elena'. That man had some explaining to do tomorrow, but for tonight, she would just reminisce over those amazing two minutes.

The doors clicked open as Elena turned the key in the lock and stepped into the dimly lit hallway.

She spotted a familiar head of short blonde hair in the doorway of the first apartment and smiled brightly at the figure.

"Hey Liz! I haven't seen you in a while, how have you been?" Elena asked kindly though still distracted by her own thoughts.

"Fine thanks Elena. How about you? Would you like to come in for some tea before you head up?"

Elena was about to respectfully decline but paused. It would be nice to have a little time with Liz. The woman had been so sweet to her and Elena could use a little womanly bonding time. After all, she didn't have a lot of that seeing as her own mother was no longer here and Jenna was miles and miles away.

"That'd be great, thank you." She said, following Liz into the cozy apartment.

"Caroline is out with Stefan again tonight." Liz started, pouring tea into Elena's cup. "He's such a sweetheart, that young man. I have never seen my daughter so happy. She just lights up when he's around." Liz sat down and smiled at the brunette.

"I know, they are both so enamored with each other. It's nice to see." Elena smiled and was once more brought back to thoughts of Damon.

"Uh oh, I know that look." Liz said, setting her tea cup down. "Who's the man in your life?"

Elena blushed and took a small sip. "Well, I do sort of have this thing… with Damon."

"Stefan's brother?" Liz asked and Elena nodded in assurance.

"Yeah, we've been sort of tip toeing around it but then we were on our way out of the office today- and he kissed me." Elena said, letting her confusion show.

"And what's the problem with that sweetie?"

"I just- when we first met I couldn't stand him. He was so… not my type. He was cocky, and rude, and arrogant. And I could hardly stand to be in the same room as him."

"But then you got to know him better? And saw that he wasn't just who you thought he was?" Liz guessed as Elena paused.

"Exactly. I just don't know what to do."

"Sweetie, if you have feelings for him and he has feelings to you I don't know what you're worried about. Go for it." Liz said simply.

"But what if it's a mistake? I mean we seem like such different people, how could it work?"

"Elena, speaking from experience, sometimes it's the people who seem most different who turn out to be the most alike."

Elena took in her words and really thought about what Liz meant. She appreciated Liz for listening and trying to help and Elena felt much better about her feelings for Damon. And she felt much more confident in what she wanted to do with them.

"Caroline is really lucky to have a mom like you." Elena stated.

Liz smiled graciously at the young girl. "That's sweet of you to say but I'm not perfect. Caroline and I haven't always had the relationship we do today- but luckily we changed that. I'm sure your mom would've been really proud of the woman you have become Elena. And anytime you need to talk, I'm here."

Elena stood up and pulled the elderly woman into a tight hug. "Thanks Liz."

"Now you should go get some sleep, you have a man to confront tomorrow."

* * *

**A/N: I hope you liked this chapter- we had a little mother/daughter type moment, a little stelena friendship and oh yeah- a delena kiss! I'm not the best at writing those kind of moments i hope i did it justice though. And I know Liz might be little OOC but thats just how i chose to write her in this story... let me know what you guys think about all this?**

**xoxo, Laura**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: I do not own Vampire Diaries.**

**Also I just want to thank a few readers. The following people have reviewed almost every chapter and given me their input and I want them to know how much I appreciate them taking the time to do so:) so big thanks to _MadDam-de-Mort,_** **_fytvdok, bluestriker666, winxgirl1997, ayna93, vivianafrancesca, debs2000, 'M' and guest_. Not only do I value your, the readers, opinions but also it is a lovely compliment to know that you are enjoying my writing. Thank you to not only these readers but to everyone who has reviewed/favourited/followed/read this story so far!**

* * *

Bonnie sat at her desk typing out emails quietly. It was nearing nine in the morning and she had just witnessed Damon practically skipping out of the elevator whistling an unfamiliar tune.

As if that wasn't weird (or suspicious) enough, he had even smiled and said 'good morning' to her. Although, she knew the reason behind this unusual display of happiness and it came in the form of Miss Elena Gilbert.

On her way in this morning, she was stopped by the custodian of the building- Charlie- with whom she had become good friends with over the few years she's worked here and he had quite the story to tell her.

"_Oh yeah, the elevator opened and there they were- sucking face as you kids call it today." The old man told her. "Didn't notice lil' old me when they finally broke apart. Seemed kind of distracted" He gave her a hearty chuckle._

Bonnie had seen the two interact over the last couple weeks and something had definitely changed. The banter between the two had grown from borderline catty to flirtatious and neither she nor Stefan missed the change.

She was waiting for the girl in question to walk through the foyer. Now that the sexual tension had been addressed between the two- what would become of them?

One thing she was sure of, the office was about to get even more interesting.

* * *

Elena tapped her foot one her way up to the eighteenth floor. She didn't know how she was supposed to react. She knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to go up to him, throw herself in his arms and never let go. She was desperate to feel his lips on hers once more. But this was the real world and things had to be addressed before just jumping somebody at work.

Elena figured she could ignore it, until lunch at least- act normal until they could be alone and talk about it.

After all, he didn't really let her know what he wanted next- he just left her without a second look last night.

The doors opened and she took a breath before making her way out. She offered Bonnie her usual bright smile and made her way straight to Stefan's office.

Damon and Stefan both had their heads over the desk, looking over the new plans they had come up with yesterday for the new product.

They both looked up at her and Damon smirked as her breath caught once she gazed into his dark blue eyes.

"Good morning, Elena." Damon greeted cheerfully, her name rolling off his tongue.

"Morning." She replied simply, leaving it at that. She then decided, she would act professionally and leave the kiss to be discussed in the off hours.

"How are the plans looking?" Elena said, shrugging off her blazer and moving next to Damon to look at what they had come up with.

"Just about finished, just adding the final touches. You just missed Katherine; she came in for a copy of the files to show the heads of Petrova." Stefan explained.

"Oh what a shame to miss that ball of sunshine." Elena said under her breathe and heard Damon laugh beside her.

"It looks pretty good for the reveal to the company later today." Damon told her.

"I passed the head of development on my way to the elevator- they're really excited to see what's going on."

"Well, hopefully we don't disappoint." Stefan said.

Elena had left the boys to organize the plans while she headed and checked in with the PR department.

The sales were starting to get back on track and the investments in the company's stock were rising once more. Elena smiled, looking over the information.

"So you have the inside scoop miss Gilbert. Care to give us a hint at what the brothers have up their sleeve?" A young woman-Sarah- asked her kindly.

Elena laughed and shook her head with a smile. "Sorry but I'm in the dark with the rest of you. They're not telling me a whole lot about it- just that it's good." She winked.

"That's a shame. Oh well, just a few more hours and we'll find out." Sarah sighed in resignation. "Did you get everything you were looking for?"

"Yes, thanks for your help. Everything seems to be improving." Elena commented.

"Improving: no. Getting back to how it was: yes. Which is the best we can ask for 'cause we were pretty kick-ass before." She smiled and gathered up the papers she had laid out for Elena to look over.

Elena bid goodbye to the quirky girl in PR and made her way up to grab her wallet for lunch.

Stepping out of the elevator she ran straight into a black clad figure. Having her head at the chest of the figure she could clearly smell the intoxicating scent she had become familiar with over the past few days and she knew instantly who it was.

"Damon, hey." She said once she straightened up.

"Elena, I was just going to grab some lunch, I'd love for you to join me."

And her mind immediately thought back to the kiss and she hadn't even realized the word 'yes' had came out of her mouth, not until she noticed his bright smile.

She quickly grabbed her jacket and purse and followed him down out into the street.

"So…" She started, not sure of the words to use.

"So…" he repeated, smirking at her as they made their way down the street to the corner deli.

She decided to pluck up all her courage and just go for it but she had no idea how to phrase what she was thinking about.

"You want to talk to me about the kiss." Damon said for her and she looked at him and nodded. "Did you not like it? Cause you seemed to be enjoying it yesterday."

Elena could feel her face burning as red spread across her cheeks at his bluntness. And yet he continued.

"Do you want a second go?" He did that eye thing that drove her insane and sighed at his playfulness.

"I just, I want to know what it meant." Elena said, ever so serious.

Damon's smirk turned into a genuine smile as he stopped walking and looked down towards her. "It means I like you Elena." He said sweetly, putting his hands on her shoulders and staring right into her eyes.

"Well-"Elena started but was cut off by a loud ringing from Damon's pocket.

"Sorry just let me check who it is." Damon said, glancing at the screen and grimacing. "It's Stefan. Hold that thought."

"It's sweet how attached you are to me, but I've only been gone ten minutes little brother."

Elena watched as Damon listened to whatever Stefan was saying on the phone and grew concerned at how his once playful smile turned into a deep frown. Only briefly did she wonder how someone could pull off looking deeply bothered and extremely good-looking at the same time.

"What do you mean, there's nothing we can do. It's out product!" Damon exclaimed, his voice rising. Elena's brows furrowed as she took in his words trying to make sense of what was going on.

"We'll be right there." He said before clicking end.

"What's wrong? What's going on?" Elena asked as Damon nodded his head in the direction back to the office.

"Katherine." Was all he said before taking long strides back to the office, Elena struggling to keep up.

The two made it back to the office in record time and Elena trailed behind a fuming Damon the whole time right up until they arrived at Stefan's office where he and the company's head lawyer- Tom- were in an intense discussion.

"What the hell is going on?" Damon questioned immediately.

"She gave everything we had over to the Lockwood's. They signed a contract with Petrova an hour ago for the rights to publish and produce it." Stefan explained, running a hand down his face.

"So we sue her." Damon said simply. "That's our creation, its theft!' He yelled.

"It's not that simple." Tom, a slightly older man with graying hair stepped in, and started calmly. "You two never made any written agreement between yourselves and Petrova: it was all verbal meaning we can't account for anything. And you just handed everything over to them. Unfortunately, they have every right to do with it what they will."

Stefan slumped down in his chair looking defeated. Damon paced all around the office before throwing a fist into the wall. Elena looked between everyone in the room finally learning what was going on.

"They're must be some sort of loophole." She said, trying to find a solution. "Stefan and Damon came up with the whole product idea, isn't there copyright or anything?" Elena asked, speaking directly to the lawyer.

Tom sighed before looking at both boys. Stefan who had sat up, looking slightly more hopeful at the suggestion and Damon who had stopped pacing gathered his attention. He looked as if he didn't want to say anything but went on anyway.

"There is a copyright proposal that _should've_ been put in place before you started working with Petrova…" he said, implying what he didn't want to say out loud.

Damon nodded bitterly, realizing what he wasn't saying.

"But because we don't know how to run a business, we conveniently screwed ourselves over." Damon yelled, not bothering to hold any rage in and Elena flinched at the tone of his voice.

"Damon…" Stefan tried, but knowing it wouldn't do any good.

"No Stefan, it's true! We have no clue what we're doing and we were stupid to think otherwise! The company has been going nowhere but down since dad died and we aren't doing anything to help it. We might as well just shut it down now!" Damon exclaimed angrily before storming out of the room.

Elena, who had been watching Damon during his out burst took a quick glance towards Stefan and Tom. One looking very upset and crushed while the latter just looked uncomfortable. She then turned to follow Damon out hoping to calm him down.

She quickly jumped into the elevator before the doors shut and saw that Damon was facing the wall, his grip tight on the handles.

She tentatively put a hand on his back and he just shook her off. Ignoring the hurt she felt at that action, she out her hands by her side and started to talk.

"Damon it's going to be okay. We'll-"Once more today, she was cut off.

"No, Elena, It's not going to be okay. We are running this company into the ground and we are just embarrassing ourselves by thinking we can turn it around." Damon seethed, glaring down at Elena.

The elevator doors opened, it felt they had only been in here a second. Such a drastic time change to when they had been in here just 24 hours ago and it felt like much longer.

Damon didn't bother to wait for anything else she had to say as he stormed out of the elevator and out of the Salvatore empire headquarters.

If there was anything Elena was used to, it was things changing drastically within just minutes.

* * *

**A/N: And there it is! Katherine is still a deceitful liar, Damon let his anger get the best of him and they didn't get to discuss their possible relationship! If I was a reader, I would really hate this author:P**

**I can't belive we are on chapter 15 already! Only _three_ more left you guys:( I hope youall stick with me til the end!**

**Thanks again for reading:)**

**xoxo Laura**


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: I do not own Vampire Diaries. **

***All of you lovely readers, I just want to say THANK YOU oh so much as this story as just passed 100 reviews! I am really excited that this has been perceived so well and people seem to like it!**

* * *

"_Just you wait, Lockwood Inc. is prepping a new product that you will have to see to believe! It had to be there best one yet. Pre-order soon!"_

Elena slammed the off button on the office radio that she, Bonnie and Stefan were currently surrounding.

It had been two days since Petrova signed their alliance with Lockwood Inc. and two days since anyone had last spoken to Damon. Elena was growing increasingly worried each time a call was rejected by him.

Stefan wasn't talking that much since Damon left: Elena had a feeling his words were really sticking with him and he was overwhelmed. She tried to get him to talk but he would just shake his head softly every time.

What made it worse was at the end of the day when Bonnie kept getting calls from department heads wondering when the reveal of the big surprise would be. Elena, noticing how this affected Stefan asked Bonnie to send out a memo telling the company that the reveal was postponed.

Today, Stefan received an email from the head of Lockwood Inc. promoting their new 'special secret product' due to be revealed and released within the next few months. Elena found herself calling down to Tom every few hours to see if there were any new developments, sadly there were none.

Elena headed down into the PR department and asked if there was a way to find out how people were responding to the Lockwood's new project. And it was going well- for the Lockwood's anyway. The empire on the other hand: was sinking again.

_Ring…ring…ring_

"_You've reached Damon Salvatore; obviously I'm not here so talk to the machine."_

Elena groaned as she reached his voicemail for the 500th time and decided that this is not how it's going to go.

Yes, he and Stefan made a mistake. Yes, it cost the company a new product. But that does not mean they are failures. They are young and they made one mistake, so have a million of other people just getting the hang of things. And Elena will be damned if she just let Damon leave in the middle of this mess.

She strutted with determination right into his office. He must have something with his address on it in here. Walking into the wood paneled room, she immediately headed for the desk. Files from different departments were sitting in a neat stack right in the centre, his laptop off to the side and _ah ha_, she thought. Damon's small pile of mail sat on the corner of the mahogany desk.

She picked up the top letter and looked at the address under his name. Typing it into her phone for later, she threw on her jacket and told Bonnie she'd be back later.

Stepping out into the bustling city streets she did her best to hail down a cab. She read him the address off her phone and off they went as she tried to think of what exactly she was going to say.

_11…12…13!_ She read, walking through the swanky looking hallway of Damon's apartment building. Definitely a step up from where she was residing.

She raised her hand and hesitated, just momentarily before grabbing her wits and knocking sharply three times.

It took a few moments but before long the door opened to reveal an exhausted looking- _shirtless_- Damon Salvatore.

She tore her gaze away from his abs just in time to see his eyes widen in surprise at her appearance.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, running a hand through his disheveled hair.

She put a hand on his stomach to push him further into the room and stepped through the door herself. "Put a shirt on. We're going out."

"What? You don't like the view?" He suggested giving her a wink. She didn't need the beer bottles on the coffee table to tell her he had been drinking a little bit. She rolled her eyes at him and threw him the shirt that had been tossed over the arm of black recliner.

"What if I don't want to go somewhere?" he asked, being difficult but still conceding to put on a shirt.

"I'm not giving you a choice." Was all she said, clicking the TV off and heading out of the apartment, leaving him to follow her out with a groan.

Glancing behind her to make sure Damon was still with her; Elena pushed open the door to the building and out into the daylight. Taking a few moments to hail a cab, she let him step in first and sat in beside him.

"Where we headed to?" The cabbie looked over his should at the both of them. Damon turned his head to look at Elena also, curiosity sketched upon his face.

"Magnolia Bakery, Times Square." She offered, and ignored Damon's confused glance.

With New York City traffic, it took them about twenty-five minutes to get from Damon's apartment to the bakery. Elena quickly paid the driver (slapping Damon's hand when he reached for his wallet) and stepped out leading Damon into the quaint and delicious smelling store.

"What are we doing here?" Damon asked, following Elena into the line.

"What kind of cupcake do you want? Elena asked, ignoring the question.

He stared at her for a moment, his gaze unrelenting until the two elderly women in front of them finished and it was their turn at the counter. "Red Velvet."

Elena made the order and they stood in silence while they waited for their cupcakes.

They took their red velvets and found an empty spot on a concrete ledge across the street.

"So are you finally going to give me some answers or are you just going to buy me another cupcake?" Damon asked, taking a big bite out of his.

"All I knew about New York City before I came here was from what I had seen in movies or on TV. I had seen Times Square hundreds of times and knew all about FAO Schwarz and the Empire State Building… but then I got here and I found there was so much more than that. The magic I saw on the TV screen was so much better in person than I ever could have imagined." Elena contemplated before continuing her spiel. "When I first got here, I was so focused on finding a job and getting settled in so I would be able to stay in this place that I missed out on experiencing the magic I have been watching on television for years. So that's what we're doing today.

This…" she paused, extending her arms to the space around them. "Is our get-away day. Like a time-out from all the drama that's going on."

Taking in her explanation and giving himself a moment to think about the idea he finally reacted. He shoved the rest of his cupcake in his mouth, swallowed and gave her a huge smile. The first he'd given her in days and she smiled just as brightly back at him.

"So, where to next Ms. Gilbert?" He said, standing up and extending his hand to her.

"I'm glad you asked Mr. Salvatore. Follow me!" Elena said, grasping his strong hand in hers and pulling him along to their next stop.

This day would go down in the books as one of Elena's favorites. She had taken Damon to all the cheesy tourist spots that she had always wanted to visit and as it turns out, even he who had lived in the city for quite a while, had never been to.

Their second spot was the famed FAO Schwarz toy store, followed by a walk in central park and frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity. Damon spotted Dylan's Candy Bar while walking down the street and dragged her in with the intention to buy her a giant chocolate bar for her sweet tooth.

Damon definitely played along to her idea and let loose for the day: something she was grateful for. She was happy that Damon decided to give her idea a chance- a part of her had half expected him to slam the door in her face.

They spent the day together exploring the greatest city in the world: laughing, smiling and connecting in a way neither of them expected. Sure, they had grown close over the past couple months and developed feelings for one another but today gave them a taste of what it would be like to actually _be together._ Elena hoped it felt as good to him as it did to her.

But the ignorant bliss could only last so long. The fact of the matter had to be addressed sooner or later and Damon was the one to bring it up as they were standing atop Rockefeller Center later that night.

The sky was pitch black, but the atmosphere was brightly lit from all the street lights. You could see skyscrapers miles away and you were high enough to even make out a few stars in the sky.

The air had grown cold as the night went on and Damon gave Elena his sweater to wear over her light summery outfit. She loved being encased by his scent all throughout the night.

"The elephant in the room seems to be roaring at the moment." He commented, not moving his head from staring down into the streets.

"Damon…" Elena thought back to what she had wanted to tell him this morning but she couldn't make the words come out of her mouth.

"Elena, I know what you're going to say." He said gently. "But first, I want to apologize for the other day. I shouldn't have talked to you like I did when you were just trying to help."

"You don't have to be sorry, you were mad. It's understandable."

"Ever the compassionate one." He teased; smirking at her while she rolled her eyes.

"You know if you do that enough, your eyes are going to get stuck like that." He joked, lighting up the tone of the conversation.

"It's not your fault Damon." Elena said, turning to the side to look at him. "You know what, things happen for a reason and you can learn from your mistakes. That is what is most important in this."

"I know. I know that I can do better, and that I'll get over it, I just-… I'm ashamed of the way I reacted." Damon admitted softly. "I pretty much made the decision to abandon him when I left and the only reason I took this job was so that wasn't what would happen...I really love to screw everything up."

"It's not too late Damon. You were mad; you had every right to take a breather. He still needs you and he still wants you there with him." Elena said, taking Damon's hand in hers, making him look at her. "You two can come back from this. I know you can and you will show everybody who ever doubted you that you know what you're doing."

"You really think so?" He asked, turning to face her as well.

"I know so." She said confidently. "Damon, people have been watching day in and day out to see how you and Stefan were planning to handle everything you had thrown at you. They were just waiting for you guys to fail and break down. Don't let them win. Prove them wrong." He took in her words and it seemed to work as he began nodding.

"We're going to prove people wrong." He agreed with conviction.

"Yes, you are. But that can start tomorrow. As for now, we still have about a half hour left on our time out." She said, consulting her watch for the time that read eleven thirty.

She was about to turn back and face the railing once more when she felt a tug on her hand and turned to look at Damon.

He didn't give her anytime to take in the moment before his soft lips were on hers once more and he wrapped her in his arms.

He pulled back to rest his forehead against hers and she smiled gently at him. "We never finished that conversation from the other day. "He reminded her.

"We didn't, did we?" She agreed before pulling him back in for another kiss. Words were not needed for the conversation this time around.

Elena was with Stefan in his office the next morning- hoping that Damon hadn't changed his mind this morning about coming in. She didn't mention anything to Stefan just in case something came up and now they were going through the books once more.

She heard Bonnie greet somebody and looked up just in time to see a sharply dressed Damon Salvatore walk into Stefan's office.

"Hello brother, ready for damage control?"

* * *

**A/N: Kind of a short chapter but with much Delena goodness! Hope you enjoyed it:)**

**xoxo, Laura**


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: I do not own Vampire Diaries.**

* * *

Stefan's relief was obvious on his face when he heard his brother's words. He stood to greet his brother and no words needed to be said between them. They just gave each other a comforting manly hug and set to work.

The next two days, Stefan and Damon got back on track, choosing not to dwell on their bad luck with Petrova and promising themselves that they will go over every possible business decision from here on out with Tom.

They were anxious, and determined to do everything they could to bring the empire back to its original standing. They had a new vendetta against Lockwood Inc. and it was fueling their drive to be successful.

Ever since their time-out Elena and Damon hadn't been outright with their newfound relationship- not even labeling it yet due to the fact that they wanted the company to be in a stable position before dealing with the personal matters but that didn't stop them from stealing kisses when nobody was watching.

Stefan was going over some contracts in his office when he heard a soft knock on his door. "Come in."

An elderly woman stepped through the door, shutting it behind her. Dressed in a bold plum business suit accompanied with black rimmed glasses, and graying hair pulled back into a loose chignon, the women took the seat Stefan offered her.

"This is a nice surprise Sophie. What can I do for you?" Stefan said kindly. Sophie Flowers was a kind old woman who Stefan had known for years now. She also happened to be the editor and chief of the magazine run by the Salvatore Empire.

"Well, seeing your young handsome face is always a nice way to start my day, especially since we don't get to do much talking nowadays. But there also is a matter of business to attend to." She said sweetly, resting her hands on her crossed knees.

"And what's that?" Stefan said leaning back in his chair. "Is everything okay in publishing?" he questioned, getting a little worried incase their was another issue to deal with.

"No, no everything's fine. Nothing is the matter. Don't you worry." She said, smiling softly at him. This woman reminded him very much of his grandmother and he couldn't help but feel relaxed and peaceful in her company. "That being said, I'm getting old. And I think its time to start thinking about retirement."

"Retirement?" Stefan confirmed, on top of everything he would have to worry about finding a competent person to replace the woman who has been in charge for about fifteen years now.

"Yes. Now don't worry I know you and your brother have a lot to deal with right now and I'm not going anywhere until things settle down and you have time to find a suitable replacement. I just wanted to give you a heads up." She said, standing to leave.

"Thank you Sophie, I appreciate that. And don't worry we won't make you stay too long. You deserve a nice break after all you've done for the Empire." He complimented and bid her goodbye as she left the room.

He turned back to his paper, sighing as more was added to his plate.

* * *

"Damon, we should be working." Elena giggled as he pressed his lips against hers once more. The two were currently in Damon's office. Elena had been trying to discuss the few meetings they had set up during the next few days but he was more interested in kissing rather than talking.

"I know all I need to know about the meetings Elena." He said, pulling her closer to his own body. "You are the thing I need to get caught up on." He said before pressing his lips against hers once more.

Elena hummed against his lips, giving up her fight for just a second before coming back to her senses.

"Damon, we're working. They'll be plenty of time for this…" She pulled away and gestured between the two of them. "Later. Later tonight..." She said seductively before pulling away and walking out the door.

Damon sighed in defeat and jokingly whistled after her.

* * *

Stefan, Damon and Elena were having a fun lunch break in Damon's office. Stefan and Elena had gone out to grab some Chinese for lunch and brought it back as a surprise for Damon.

Half way through the lunch hour, Bonnie came rushing in with an anxious look on her face, bringing a pause to the atmosphere in the room as they looked at her concerned.

"Turn on the news." Was all she said before walking further into the room and taking a seat beside Elena.

Stefan grabbed the remote and clicked the power on, turning immediately to the correct channel instead of questioning Bonnie.

"_The lawsuit being filed seems like a major one. And with the alleged evidence against Lockwood Incorporated, it does not look good for them_." The reporter was saying at the news desk.

"What's going on?" Damon asked, not removing his eyes form the TV as the camera cut to a video clip of Richard Lockwood being escorted in handcuffs by uniformed officers into a cruiser.

"Well besides the fact that it seems like the Lockwood's haven't been paying their taxes, another company filed a lawsuit against them. For _intellectual theft_." Bonnie explained, pausing to look at the other three occupants in the room. "But not only the Lockwood's, they're suing Petrova too. Apparently they made the same deal as you two and Petrova screwed them over also. But unlike the empire, they had a copyright drawn up. According to the most recent findings, apparently Katherine Pierce has been a busy little bee lately and managed to coerce four other companies into the same kind of deal- giving all the work to the Lockwood's."

"_Pardon my language, but from this standpoint, the Lockwood's seem to be well…. Screwed. Looks like Lockwood Inc. is no more." _The reported gave a grim smile to the studio audience before Stefan cut the power off.

There was sudden entrance to the office and the four young adults found themselves in front of a panting Tom Yorke.

"Did you see it? Did you see the news?" He said, straightening up a little with a happy smile on his face. "The Lockwood's will never be ale to come back from this, it's amazing." He said with a giant smile.

"Holy crap." Stefan exclaimed as he realized what this meant.

"Oh how I love karma." Damon said.

"Does this mean we get the product back?" Elena asked, confused by what exactly this meant, not being too informed of business procedures.

"This means we get the market back." Stefan explained. "The Lockwood's were our biggest competition and now that they're shutting down, there's a good chance that a large percentage of their customers will come to or back to us."

He walked through that idea out loud, letting everybody hear it, waiting for someone to correct him when he implied that they should be back on top sooner than they had thought but nobody did. Because they couldn't- there was now nothing stopping them from rising back to the position they once held.

"We win." Damon said simply with a big grin, turning to look at Stefan, Bonnie and Elena who all wore a similar expression.

* * *

**A/N: Yay! Everything's solved, they're getting the Empire back to its reigning glory! Haha, so this is the second last chapter. The final one is kind of like an epilogue of sorts I guess, just to finish the storyline off. Speaking of, while I do have it written, I'm not too happy with it so it might be a while before its posted just because I want it to be perfect for you guys! (and maybe a little because I don't want this story to be over so soon).**

**What do you guys think of how things turned out? believable or no? (like i said, I'm just making up a lot of the business parts so hopefully all of it's not too out there. **

**What do you think will happen in the next chapter for our favourite characters?**

**Thanks for everything!**

**xoxo, Laura**


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: I do not own Vampire Diaries. Well, this is it: sorry for the wait but honestly I'm sad about this story coming to a close and wanted to prolong it a little bit. **

* * *

_Three Weeks Later_

"I'm so happy for you guys. This is amazing!" Elena exclaimed, puling Caroline into a tight hug. Caroline gave her a big smile and nodded her head, pulling back from Elena and leaning into Stefan's side.

She, Elena, Stefan and Damon were gathered in Stefan's office. She and Damon had just come back from lunch to find Stefan finally here at work after arriving late. There they were bombarded by Caroline's squeal of excitements and bear hugs.

"He was so adorable when he was proposing and he was so sweet." Caroline explained, looking up at to see Stefan smiling fondly down at her. Suddenly, she pulled away and grabbed Elena's hands in all seriousness. "Elena, will you be my maid of honor?"

Elena was shocked at the gesture but recovered fast giving Caroline another hug. "Of course I will Caroline. Thank you so much."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Damon and Stefan off to the side: giving each other a friendly handshake and a pat of the back. She also noticed that Damon had a giant grin on his face and was nodding. She had a feeling Stefan just asked his big brother to be his best man and she was so happy to have been there and had the chance to see how far they have come since the beginning of this whole empire deal.

"There's just so much to plan but hopefully it won't be to stressful-I mean, this is what I do for a living right." Caroline giggled, still giddy with excitement at her newfound happiness. "We're planning for a june wedding."

"Congratulations, you guys are perfect together." She said, looking between the two.

"Well since we're sharing good news I guess there's something we should announce too." Damon suggested, turning his head towards Elena. She just looked at him surprised at his words.

"And what exactly is that?" Stefan asked with a knowing smirk to his brother.

Damon smirked and stepped closer to Elena, taking her head and pulling her towards him for a kiss. Elena blushed as his lips touched hers under the scrutiny of their good friends but smiled into the kiss nonetheless.

Stefan and Caroline playfully hooted and hollered at the newly formed couple. "Finally!" They voiced together, obviously happy with the revelation. Elena and Damon parted and smiled at each other.

"Oh! And I've decided to stay with the Salvatore Empire." He said before turning to Stefan hesitantly. "Well, if you'll have me."

Stefan paused for a moment between breaking out into a smile once more. "I wouldn't want it any other way."

The Salvatore Empire was once more rising steadily to the top now that the threat of Lockwood Inc. was gone. The key players in the company were now in jail awaiting their trial and the whole corporation had been shut down.

Damon and Stefan were working on their new product- which they had gotten back with the help of Tom and slowly becoming more and more comfortable with their abilities as the owner's of the company.

* * *

"Hey, you wanted to see me?" Elena asked, closing the door to Stefan's office behind her.

"Yes, come on in." He said, closing his laptop and giving her his attention.

"I think I know what this is about." She said. "I know this was a temporary position. I was just hired to help you guys sort yourselves out and now that you've got your feet on the ground, I'm not really needed." Elena shrugged with a light smiled on her face. "I get it Stefan, don't worry about it. But thank you for helping me out in the first place. You will never know how much I appreciate it."

"Elena. I hate to say that yes this is a temporary position. " He agreed, clasping his hands together. "Having said that, a permanent position just opened up and I'd like you to consider taking it."

Elena looked to her old friend, confused at the offer. "What do you mean? What position?"

"Sophie Flowers- editor and chief of _Empire Magazine_ came to me a few weeks ago and let me know that she's ready to retire very soon. I'd like for you to take her place."

"Are you serious: editor and chief? Why me? I'm sure there are much more qualified people Stefan."

"Why not you? You have the degree, the work ethic and you've been a key part in bringing the empire back to its rightful position. If anybody deserves this position it's you Elena."

"That's a generous opportunity for me Stefan but is it right? Aren't there other people in place to take over, is that fair to them? I don't want to step on anybody's toes." Elena said, the last thing she wanted to do was create unnecessary drama.

"There's nobody who is more qualified then you, I see no reason why anybody deserves it any more than you would. And as for fair, yes there are some people who have been with the company for a while but I think it would be a good idea for us as a company to continue with the fresh blood ideas. Look at me and Damon, we were just thrust in here and we're doing alright, throwing new ideas into the company. I think of it as a fresh start which is exactly what we need right now. You don't need to say anything right now, think about it for a few days and get back to me."

"I don't need a few days." Elena told him. "How can I turn down an opportunity like that?" She smiled.

* * *

"You know, you don't have to do this." Elena said before backtracking. "Not that I don't want you to come with me… it's really sweet that you want to actually."

"Elena, shut up. I want to come with you. Besides, I have to know if your brother is as weird as you or if you're just the odd one out." He joked, throwing her a smirk from the driver's seat.

"Ha, ha." She said dryly before directing him to turn right.

She had casually mentioned going to visit Jeremy in the rehab centre and Damon had kindly asked if she would be okay with him tagging along.

They walked hand-in-hand up to the secretary of the centre to sign in. Once retrieving their visitor passes- they continued down the hallways trying to locate Jeremy's room. Although Elena had been calling or emailing him everyday since he started his treatment: this is the first time she had actually seen him since he started.

Coming up to room 10A, she noticed that the door was not fully closed and took a deep breathe and a glance at Damon who gave her a reassuring smile before raising her hand to knock. Receiving no answer, she slowly pushed open the door to find it empty. The bed was half made up and it was clear that her brother was the current resident. Family pictures crowded the formerly bare dresser and his familiar sketch pad had a place on his desk.

"Elena?" She heard someone ask before turning her head to the left. There she saw her brother, looking happy to see her and to her relief- much happier and healthier than she had seen him in years.

She grinned at him before rushing to meet him in the middle of the hallway and pull him into a giant hug that he returned gratefully.

"I didn't know you were coming today, I would've actually made an effort." He joked, looking down at the sweats and old t-shirt he was wearing.

"I wanted to surprise you." She said and then she noticed his attention turn to Damon who had been silently standing behind her during their greeting.

She moved back to stand beside Damon, grabbing his hand softly. "Jeremy, this is- my boyfriend, Damon." She said, happy to make that particular introduction. "Damon, this is my little brother Jeremy."

Jeremy smirked at his sister before sticking his hand out for Damon to shake. "Nice to meet you dude."

"You too kid, I've heard a lot about you."

After the introductions, Jeremy invited Elena and Damon into his room hurrying to make space for them to sit down. They all made idle chit chat for a little while before Elena made to turn to the conversation more serious. Damon, realizing this, excused himself to give the siblings their privacy.

"So, how are you Jeremy? Really, I mean." Elena asked a somber expression on her features.

"Elena I've told you a million times on the phone. I'm doing good." He said, before looking down at the ground. "It was hard at first, but I'm getting there. I still have some bad days but I really think I'm getting there."

"You don't know how proud I am of you Jer. You've come a long way in a short time." Elena said, reaching over and taking his hand in his.

"Thank you Elena. For everything. I couldn't have done this without you." He disclosed, squeezing her hand gently. "Now about this boyfriend of yours…"

She worried a little of what her brother was going to say. She wanted Jeremy and Damon to get along; they both meant a lot to her. Though she knew, of all people, Damon could be a little hard to understand after a first impression. Though, it was definitely going better than their first meeting had.

"Is this the same Damon that you told me about before? The one you called arrogant, annoying and immature?" He asked with a questioning smile on his face.

Elena hesitated for a second, trying to find the right words. "He just sort of snuck up on me, he got under my skin and now no matter what I do I can't shake him. I really like him, Jeremy…"

"He seems like a decent guy." He concluded. "Does he treat you right?" He said, wanting to make sure his sister was being treated the way she deserved to be.

She smiled and nodded to her little brother, who wasn't so little anymore. "He treats me really well Jeremy."

"Well that's all that matters, isn't it." He said.

Later, Damon and Elena heading back on the highway home.

"Thank you for coming with me Damon." Elena said, leaning her head against the headrest and turning to look at him.

"Anytime, Gilbert." He smiled, grabbing hold of her hand and bringing it to his lips for a soft kiss.

* * *

A week later, Elena found herself in her brand new office. It was designed much like Damon and Stefan's. Same wood interior lining the walls, and a similar clean thin white carpet to cover the floors. Of course it was smaller but it was perfectly comfortable enough for Elena.

It was first day acting as editor and chief of Empire Magazine. She had been shadowing Mrs. Flowers for the past few days though, learning all the important things she would need to know and getting acquainted with her co-workers.

Luckily for her, they didn't seem too offended of the fact that Stefan didn't hire from inside the department. In fact, many seemed eager for a new face in the office and expressed their enthusiasm for a new boss with some fresh ideas.

Her first order of business was to hire another temporary secretary for the department as the current one, Jules, was soon to go on maternity leave.

The first few applicants didn't bode to well with Elena. One having no experience what so ever, the second having no enthusiasm for the job and the last expecting too much from the temporary position.

The fourth applicant however was someone Elena recognized as soon as her high heels click clacked there way into the office. It was the snide blonde secretary who had rudely told her to get out when she was heading for her second interview when she first got to the city.

"Hi." Elena said shortly, not expecting to ever see her again, much less as a possible employee of her own.

It was obvious the blonde had recognized her as well, as she adapted a telling habit of tapping her fingers against her legs form nervousness. She had an apprehensive look on her face as she shook Elena's outstretched hand and took a seat.

"So you're looking to fill the temporary secretary position?" Elena confirmed, wondering what had happened to her previous position. _Especially when she had such a happy disposition towards people._

The blonde decided to take her chances and face the facts, something Elena chose to admire about her. "Look, I know I wasn't exactly kind to you when you came in and I would understand why you wouldn't want to hire me based on that encounter; why would you want someone like that working for you? But I promise you I have learned from my previous mistakes and I will not choose to do my job like that if you give me this chance. Please, just make a decision based on my skills not my past. I'm desperate." She said, biting her lip in apprehension, looking at Elena.

Elena stared at the girl, thinking of how she seemed to be in the same position she had been in all those months ago. She looked down at the resume in front of her and just skim reading she saw that she was more qualified than any of the other applicants Elena had interviewed this far. If any trait meant a lot to Elena, it was fairness and what kind of person would she be if she turned down the chance to help someone that was obviously in need of it and also had the qualifications she was working for.

"You got the job." Elena said, smiling lightly at the girl. "But please understand that I don't want anybody who walks into the office being treated the same I was when we first met."

"Of course not, Never. Thank you so much Ms. Gilbert."

"Please, call me Elena." She smiled softly.

* * *

"So how was your first day as editor and chief?" Damon said, tossing the salad behind the counter.

"I think it went pretty well actually. I never thought I would be so excited to work." She laughed, pouring two glasses of red wine and bringing one over to Damon who had kindly enough, came over to make her dinner. Finally giving her a taste of his secret talent.

He turned around to face the stove, stirring the sauce that was in the pot and taking a spoonful to Elena's lips.

"mmhm, oh my god. You are in charge of making all my meals." Elena said, taking in the delicious pasta sauce. He laughed and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her in close.

"I'm really happy Elena." Damon said softly, looking into her eyes and she smiled brightly at him.

To think that just months ago she could barely stand to be around him and now she couldn't picture her life without him. They had been through a lot together: from fighting, to befriending, to renewing the company and finally to making each other so incredibly happy.

She never would've pictured her life turning out like this when she first moved to the city but she couldn't imagine it any other way.

* * *

**A/N: There you have it. The finale of "Everybody's Waiting"! Personally, I don't love the ending but unfortunately I couldn't think of the perfect way to end it: all I know is I wanted it to to be simple and this is all that came to me. In this last chapter I sort of wanted to show a little bit of every story to sort of tie up the loose ends. **

**Once again, sorry for the wait between chapters. This story really meant a lot to me and I'm sad to see it end: it was the first full story that I didn't just think of, write and then post. I really took my time with this one and wrote the majority of it before publishing so I could really try and make it flow and be the best that it could be. I hope that came through in the writing but who knows? Haha, sorry for this little rant.**

**A huge _thank you_ to the anybody who reviewed, favorited, followed or even just read the story:) I hope you liked it.**

**Also, just a little shameless plug I guess: I started a new AU/AH Klaroline story in case any of you readers are interested in that ship as well. I've been a little preoccupied with that lately and I'm currently working on the fourth chapter. I hope to have it posted soon so look out for it!**

**For the last time in this story:**

**xoxo, Laura**


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